Problem Solution Project: Transforming Curriculum and Empowering Urban Students and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarrett, Olga S.; Stenhouse, Vera

2011-01-01

This article presents findings of 6 years of implementing a Problem Solution Project, an assignment influenced by service learning, problem-based learning, critical theory, and critical pedagogy whereby teachers help children tackle real problems. Projects of 135 teachers in an urban certification/master's program were summarized by cohort year…

Which Women Were Executed for Witchcraft? And Which Pupils Cared? Low-Attaining Year 8 Use Fiction to Tackle Three Demons: Extended Reading, Diversity and Causation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Worth, Paula

2011-01-01

Paula Worth was concerned that her low-attaining set were only going through the motions when tackling causal explanation. Identifying, prioritising and weighing causes seemed an empty routine rather than a fascinating puzzle engaging intellect and imagination. She was also concerned that her usual efforts to solve this problem had been misplaced.…

Return to play guidelines cannot solve the football-related concussion problem.

PubMed

Johnson, L Syd M

2012-04-01

High school football players are the single largest cohort of athletes playing tackle football, and account for the majority of sport-related concussions. Return to play guidelines (RTPs) have emerged as the preferred approach for addressing the problem of sport-related concussion in youth athletes. This article reviews evidence of the risks and effects of football-related concussion and subconcussive brain trauma, as well as the effectiveness of RTPs as a preventative measure. Literature review utilized PubMed and Google Scholar, using combinations of the search terms "football,"sports,"concussion,"Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy,"athlete,"youth," and "pediatric." Literature review emphasized medical journals and primary neuroscientific research on sport-related concussion and concussion recovery, particularly in youth athletes. Sport-related concussion is a significant problem among student athletes. Student athletes are more vulnerable to concussion, and at risk of neurocognitive deficits lasting a year or more, with serious effects on academic and athletic performance. RTPs do little to address the problem of sport-related concussion or the chronic damage caused by subconcussive brain trauma. Emphasizing RTPs as the solution to the concussion problem in tackle football risks neglecting genuine reforms that would prevent concussions. More effective concussion prevention is needed. Eliminating tackling from school football for youth under 16 is recommended to reduce concussions. Additional modifications to football are recommended to enhance safety and reduce brain trauma at all levels of play. © 2012, American School Health Association.

Addressing Complex Challenges through Adaptive Leadership: A Promising Approach to Collaborative Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Tenneisha; Squires, Vicki

2017-01-01

Organizations are faced with solving increasingly complex problems. Addressing these issues requires effective leadership that can facilitate a collaborative problem solving approach where multiple perspectives are leveraged. In this conceptual paper, we critique the effectiveness of earlier leadership models in tackling complex organizational…

Some Little Night Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cannon, Lawrence O.; Elich, Joe

In most mathematics problem solving work, students' motivation comes from trying to please their teachers or to earn a good grade. The questions students must tackle are almost never generated by their own interest. Seven open-ended college algebra-level problems are presented in which the solution of one question suggests other related questions.…

The Future Problem Solving Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crabbe, Anne B.

1989-01-01

Describes the Future Problem Solving Program, in which students from the U.S. and around the world are tackling some complex challenges facing society, ranging from acid rain to terrorism. The program uses a creative problem solving process developed for business and industry. A sixth-grade toxic waste cleanup project illustrates the process.…

Tenderfooting: Tackling the Problems of Freshman Writers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hobbs, Valerie; Rex-Kerish, Lesley

1986-01-01

University of California writing instructors must teach poorly prepared freshmen how to survive English classes and how to adapt the skills they learn to the rest of their university writing assignments. Reading, thinking, organizing, and stylistic problems are discussed. (MLW)

Toward Modeling the Intrinsic Complexity of Test Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shoufan, Abdulhadi

2017-01-01

The concept of intrinsic complexity explains why different problems of the same type, tackled by the same problem solver, can require different times to solve and yield solutions of different quality. This paper proposes a general four-step approach that can be used to establish a model for the intrinsic complexity of a problem class in terms of…

Clinical leadership: Part 2. Transforming leadership.

PubMed

Sheridan, Mary; Corney, Barbra

2003-08-01

The second article in a series of three focuses on group-driven approaches to tackling problems and shows how good leadership relies on teamwork and respect for colleagues, helping to enhance problem-solving and enabling you to build on your team's successes.

Policy intervention for arsenic mitigation in drinking water in rural habitations in India: achievements and challenges.

PubMed

Shrivastava, Brajesh K

2016-10-01

This article provides updated status of the arsenic affected rural habitations in India, summarizes the policy initiatives of the Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation (Government of India), reviews the technologies for arsenic treatment and analyses the progress made by states in tackling arsenic problems in rural habitations. It also provides a list of constraints based on experiences and recommends suggested measures to tackle arsenic problems in an holistic manner. It is expected that the paper would be useful for policy formulators in states, non-government organizations, researchers of academic and scientific institutions and programme managers working in the area of arsenic mitigation in drinking water, especially in developing countries, as it provides better insights compared to other available information in India on mitigating arsenic problems in drinking water in rural areas.

A quantum annealing approach for fault detection and diagnosis of graph-based systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perdomo-Ortiz, A.; Fluegemann, J.; Narasimhan, S.; Biswas, R.; Smelyanskiy, V. N.

2015-02-01

Diagnosing the minimal set of faults capable of explaining a set of given observations, e.g., from sensor readouts, is a hard combinatorial optimization problem usually tackled with artificial intelligence techniques. We present the mapping of this combinatorial problem to quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO), and the experimental results of instances embedded onto a quantum annealing device with 509 quantum bits. Besides being the first time a quantum approach has been proposed for problems in the advanced diagnostics community, to the best of our knowledge this work is also the first research utilizing the route Problem → QUBO → Direct embedding into quantum hardware, where we are able to implement and tackle problem instances with sizes that go beyond previously reported toy-model proof-of-principle quantum annealing implementations; this is a significant leap in the solution of problems via direct-embedding adiabatic quantum optimization. We discuss some of the programmability challenges in the current generation of the quantum device as well as a few possible ways to extend this work to more complex arbitrary network graphs.

Challenging stigma and discrimination in communities: a focus group study identifying UK mental health service users' main campaign priorities.

PubMed

Pinfold, Vanessa; Byrne, Peter; Toulmin, Hilary

2005-06-01

Stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems have been identified as major obstacles to treatment and recovery. Less is known about how to effectively tackle stigma-discrimination, although there are numerous international, national and local programmes attempting to improve public mental health literacy and anti-discrimination evidenced based practice. To explore mental health service users' views on how campaigns to address stigma and discrimination should prioritise their actions. Qualitative study using focus group discussions, involving 33 persons aged between 25 and 75. A triad of diminished credibility, dis-empowerment with particular reference to communication problems and avoidance by their social network defined experiences of stigma. Reactions to stigma can be placed in four categories: avoid stigma, resign yourself to it, challenge it, or distance yourself from others with a mental health problem. A range of solutions was discussed with most favouring changes within the health services that are currently supporting them over traditional educational programmes with the public. For mental health service users stigma must be tackled on many different levels reflecting the varied and complex impact that negative social reactions have on an individual's life. When asked to prioritise one area, most service users in our sample highlighted reforms within the health service for tackling stigma and discrimination.

Encouraging the Use of Technology in Problem-Solving: Some Examples from an Initial Teacher Education Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopez-Real, Francis; Lee, Arthur

2006-01-01

As part of a module on mathematical problem solving in an Initial Teacher Education programme, the student teachers are encouraged to produce alternative solutions to the problems they tackle and, in particular, to consider whether ICT can help. In this paper we discuss a number of unusual solutions produced for some of the problems, specifically…

Solving the Sailors and the Coconuts Problem via Diagrammatic Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Man, Yiu-Kwong

2010-01-01

In this article, we discuss how to use a diagrammatic approach to solve the classic sailors and the coconuts problem. It provides us an insight on how to tackle this type of problem in a novel and intuitive way. This problem-solving approach will be found useful to mathematics teachers or lecturers involved in teaching elementary number theory,…

The theory-practice gap in nurse education: its causes and possible solutions. Findings from an action research study.

PubMed

McCaugherty, D

1991-09-01

Kurt Lewin, the originator of action research, proposed that it was valuable not only for innovating change, but also the process of change could lead to new insights into the nature of the problem that was being tackled. This action research project developed and evaluated a teaching model that aimed to help RGN (registered general nurse) students to bridge the theory-practice gap. During the course of this work, the possible reasons for a theory-practice gap started to become clear. This paper provides a discussion of these factors. The viewpoint for this discussion is that of the student nurse. The student is assumed to 'own' the problem and it is from her perspective that the theory-practice gap is analysed. The paper includes a critical examination of books, lectures, the school curriculum and ward nursing practice. Finally, possible solutions to the theory-practice problem are discussed and it is hoped that these will provide a rational basis for tackling the problem.

Coordinative Voltage Control Strategy with Multiple Resources for Distribution Systems of High PV Penetration: Preprint

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

Zhu, Xiangqi; Zhang, Yingchen

This paper presents an optimal voltage control methodology with coordination among different voltage-regulating resources, including controllable loads, distributed energy resources such as energy storage and photovoltaics (PV), and utility voltage-regulating devices such as voltage regulators and capacitors. The proposed methodology could effectively tackle the overvoltage and voltage regulation device distortion problems brought by high penetrations of PV to improve grid operation reliability. A voltage-load sensitivity matrix and voltage-regulator sensitivity matrix are used to deploy the resources along the feeder to achieve the control objectives. Mixed-integer nonlinear programming is used to solve the formulated optimization control problem. The methodology has beenmore » tested on the IEEE 123-feeder test system, and the results demonstrate that the proposed approach could actively tackle the voltage problem brought about by high penetrations of PV and improve the reliability of distribution system operation.« less

Promoting Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills in a Course on Engineering Grand Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zou, Tracy X. P.; Mickleborough, Neil C.

2015-01-01

The ability to solve problems with people of diverse backgrounds is essential for engineering graduates. A course on engineering grand challenges was designed to promote collaborative problem-solving (CPS) skills. One unique component is that students need to work both within their own team and collaborate with the other team to tackle engineering…

Persuading Students To Care.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Jeffrey R.

2003-01-01

Describes how Eugene M. Lang, a philanthropist known for tackling large problems in education, is financing Project Pericles to encourage colleges to promote civic-mindedness among their students. (EV)

Inviting Uncertainty into the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beghetto, Ronald A.

2017-01-01

Most teachers try to avoid having students experience uncertainty in their schoolwork. But if we want to prepare students to tackle complex problems (and the uncertainty that accompanies such problems), we must give them learning experiences that involve feeling unsure and sometimes even confused. Beghetto presents five strategies that help…

Adult Learning and Development. Perspectives from Educational Psychology. The Educational Psychology Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, M. Cecil, Ed.; Pourchot, Thomas, Ed.

Leading educational psychologists address problems in adult development and learning in this book. "What Does Educational Psychology Know about Adult Learning and Development?" (M. Cecil Smith, Thomas Pourchot) is the introduction. "We Learn, Therefore We Develop" (Nira Granott) tackles the problem of distinguishing between…

Soilborne Diseases of the Nursery Industry: USDA-ARS and OSU Team Up to Tackle this Pernicious Problem

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Soilborne diseases are a serious problem affecting many crop plants of the ornamental nursery industry. Recently, the Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory (USDA-ARS) and Oregon State University received funding from the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative via the Horticultural Research I...

The Vicious Circle of Illiteracy, Over Population and Poverty--Functional Literacy and Family Life Planning Education Approach to Tackle It

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khajapeer, M.

1976-01-01

The interrelated nature of the problems of illiteracy, overpopulation, and poverty in developing countries is explored and an integrated approach to solving these problems in India, the Functional Literacy and Family Life Planning Education program, is described. (MS)

Sustainable Schools through Science Across the World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cutler, Marianne

2007-01-01

Children need new skills if they are to become part of the solution to challenges such as climate change rather than part of the problem. So states the UK's National Framework for Sustainable Schools. Skills include expressing points of view, weighing up evidence, cooperating, thinking critically, tackling real problems, participating in…

Tackling a Local Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Martin

1995-01-01

Students studying water as a class project were concerned by levels of pollution at a nearby river and the local beach. They identified three environmental problems for research including sewage discharge, beach litter, and quality of swimming water. Research consisted of field trips which allowed for opportunities to improve skills in collecting…

Problem Analysis: The First Step in Prevention Planning. A Prevention 101 Series Publication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeJong, William

2009-01-01

Student alcohol and other drug abuse and violence (AODV) still reign as the most serious social problems faced by U.S. institutions of higher education. To tackle these problems, campus administrators--working in conjunction with partners from the surrounding community--need to put in place an integrated set of strategies that address the mix of…

Pavement markings and safety : tech transfer summary.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-11-01

Objective: This study explores the statistical relationship between crash occurrence probability and longitudinal pavement marking retroreflectivity. : Problem Statement: Previous research on pavement markings, from a safety perspective, tackled vari...

Tour of a simple trigonometry problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poon, Kin-Keung

2012-06-01

This article focuses on a simple trigonometric problem that generates a strange phenomenon when different methods are applied to tackling it. A series of problem-solving activities are discussed, so that students can be alerted that the precision of diagrams is important when solving geometric problems. In addition, the problem-solving plan was implemented in a high school and the results indicated that students are relatively weak in problem-solving abilities but they understand and appreciate the thinking process in different stages and steps of the activities.

The adiabatic piston: a perpetuum mobile in the mesoscopic realm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crosignani, Bruno; Porto, Paolo; Conti, Claudio

2004-03-01

A detailed analysis of the adiabatic-piston problem reveals, for a finely-tuned choice of the spatial dimensions of the system, peculiar dynamical features that challenge the statement that an isolated system necessarily reaches a time-independent equilibrium state. In particular, the piston behaves like a perpetuum mobile, i.e., it never comes to a stop but keeps wandering, undergoing sizeable oscillations around the position corresponding to maximum entropy; this has remarkable implications on the entropy changes of a mesoscopic isolated system and on the limits of validity of the second law of thermodynamics in the mesoscopic realm.

Problems Faced by Distance Learners in Using Web-Based Facilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dharankar, Madhavi

2012-01-01

Countries like India are engaged in exploring appropriate ways of tackling the urgent problem of educating their large and growing populations in relatively little time and with limited resources. Against this background, achieving universal primary education is a major concern. If this Millennium Development Goal is to be achieved, the…

Return to Play Guidelines Cannot Solve the Football-Related Concussion Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, L. Syd M.

2012-01-01

Background: High school football players are the single largest cohort of athletes playing tackle football, and account for the majority of sport-related concussions. Return to play guidelines (RTPs) have emerged as the preferred approach for addressing the problem of sport-related concussion in youth athletes. Methods: This article reviews…

Community and Conversation: Tackling Beginning Teacher Doubt and Disillusion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shann, Steve; Germantse, Hannah; Pittard, Libby; Cunneen, Rachel

2014-01-01

Margaret Somerville has suggested that a new methodology of postmodern emergence might allow researchers to disrupt the taken-for-granted and provide fresh insight into familiar problems. One such familiar problem is the doubt and disillusion many early-career teachers experience, both during their teacher education and in their first years.…

Guidance in the Secondary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumar, V. Jurist Lional

2010-01-01

Secondary School Students face a lot of problems in their body as well as in mind due to puberty that tends to adolescence stage. Adolescence has peculiar characters of their own. They need proper Guidance and Counselling to tackle their own problems. Guidance is described as a counselling service to assist the individual in achieving self…

Teachers' Perspectives on Effective Responses to Overt Bullying

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sokol, Nicole; Bussey, Kay; Rapee, Ronald M.

2016-01-01

School communities worldwide are tackling the pervasive problem of school bullying. Teachers hold an important responsibility to prevent and manage bullying problems in the school environment and often play a key role in advising students about how to respond to bullying. This study examined teachers' perspectives on the most effective ways to…

Forced Convection Heat Transfer in Circular Pipes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tosun, Ismail

2007-01-01

One of the pitfalls of engineering education is to lose the physical insight of the problem while tackling the mathematical part. Forced convection heat transfer (the Graetz-Nusselt problem) certainly falls into this category. The equation of energy together with the equation of motion leads to a partial differential equation subject to various…

Exploring Student and Supervisor Interaction during the SciPro Thesis Process: Two Use Cases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen, Preben; Hansson, Henrik

2017-01-01

Common problems identified by students during their interaction with supervisors are too little instructions as well as infrequent and insufficient supervisor feedback. The SciPro system has been developed to tackle these problems. This paper describes, analyzes and discusses the interaction between students and supervisors using the SciPro…

Closing the Student Achievement Gap in California's Elementary Schools: A Lead Teachers' Perspective on Transformational Instructional Leadership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hays, Kelli

2010-01-01

This study has tackled the thorny problem of closing the Student Achievement Gap (SAG) in California's elementary schools. To address that problem, an "Integrated" form of educational leadership called Transformational Instructional Leadership (TIL), a form grounded in "best practices" of Transformational and Instructional…

Relationship between Principals Administrative Strategies and Student Disciplinary Problems in Secondary School, Bayelsa State

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omemu, Felix

2017-01-01

This study examined the relationship between administrative strategy by principals and their effectiveness in tackling disciplinary problems. Three research questions were asked and one hypothesis was raised and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Ninety-five randomly selected principals from Bayelsa State constitute the sample. The instrument…

Scientific Computing

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

Fermilab

2017-09-01

Scientists, engineers and programmers at Fermilab are tackling today’s most challenging computational problems. Their solutions, motivated by the needs of worldwide research in particle physics and accelerators, help America stay at the forefront of innovation.

The Navajo Nation Radon Program

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Bois Forte Indoor Air Quality Program acted swiftly and aggressively to tackle mold and moisture problems in its community members’ homes after several residents became ill as a result of environmental exposures.

Peer deviance, parenting and disruptive behavior among young girls.

PubMed

Miller, Shari; Loeber, Rolf; Hipwell, Alison

2009-02-01

This study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between peer deviance, parenting practices, and conduct and oppositional problems among young girls ages 7 and 8. Participants were 588 African American and European American girls who were part of a population-based study of the development of conduct problems and delinquency among girls. Affiliations with problem-prone peers were apparent among a sizeable minority of the girls, and these associations included both males and females. Although peer delinquency concurrently predicted disruptive behaviors, the gender of these peers did not contribute to girls' behavior problems. Harsh parenting and low parental warmth showed both concurrent and prospective associations with girls' disruptive behaviors. Similar patterns of association were seen for African American and European American girls. The findings show that peer and parent risk processes are important contributors to the early development of young girls' conduct and oppositional behaviors. These data contribute to our understanding of girls' aggression and antisocial behaviors and further inform our understanding of risk processes for these behaviors among young girls in particular.

Peer Deviance, Parenting and Disruptive Behavior among Young Girls

PubMed Central

Miller, Shari; Loeber, Rolf; Hipwell, Alison

2009-01-01

This study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between peer deviance, parenting practices, and conduct and oppositional problems among young girls ages 7 and 8. Participants were 588 African American and European American girls who were part of a population-based study of the development of conduct problems and delinquency among girls. Affiliations with problem-prone peers were apparent among a sizeable minority of the girls, and these associations included both males and females. Although peer delinquency concurrently predicted disruptive behaviors, the gender of these peers did not contribute to girls’ behavior problems. Harsh parenting and low parental warmth showed both concurrent and prospective associations with girls’ disruptive behaviors. Similar patterns of association were seen for African American and European American girls. The findings show that peer and parent risk processes are important contributors to the early development of young girls’ conduct and oppositional behaviors. These data contribute to our understanding of girls’ aggression and antisocial behaviors and further inform our understanding of risk processes for these behaviors among young girls in particular. PMID:18777132

Link-prediction to tackle the boundary specification problem in social network surveys

PubMed Central

De Wilde, Philippe; Buarque de Lima-Neto, Fernando

2017-01-01

Diffusion processes in social networks often cause the emergence of global phenomena from individual behavior within a society. The study of those global phenomena and the simulation of those diffusion processes frequently require a good model of the global network. However, survey data and data from online sources are often restricted to single social groups or features, such as age groups, single schools, companies, or interest groups. Hence, a modeling approach is required that extrapolates the locally restricted data to a global network model. We tackle this Missing Data Problem using Link-Prediction techniques from social network research, network generation techniques from the area of Social Simulation, as well as a combination of both. We found that techniques employing less information may be more adequate to solve this problem, especially when data granularity is an issue. We validated the network models created with our techniques on a number of real-world networks, investigating degree distributions as well as the likelihood of links given the geographical distance between two nodes. PMID:28426826

Bois Forte Indoor Air Quality Program

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Bois Forte Indoor Air Quality Program acted swiftly and aggressively to tackle mold and moisture problems in its community members’ homes after several residents became ill as a result of environmental exposures.

Impact of Migraine on School Performance

MedlinePlus

... Spencer, MD Steven Karceski, MD The impact of migraine on school performance Daniel Kantor, MD e168 WHAT ... this study tackle an often overlooked problem: how migraine headache affects the school performance of children. 1 ...

A Methodology For Measuring Resilience in a Satellite-Based Communication Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-27

solving the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) (Solnon p. 1). Based upon swarm intelligence, in a travelling salesman problem ants are sent out from...developed for the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) in 1992 (Solnon p. 1), this metaheuristic shows its roots in the original formulations. Given v, the...is lost. To tackle this problem , a common LEO orbit type is examined, the polar orbit. Polar LEO satellites travel from the south pole to the

Useful Metaphors for Tackling Problems in Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Marc S.; Fischer, Kurt W.

2006-01-01

Students learn important concepts and ways of thinking by building on their own actions and experiences. In much of higher education, the primacy of textbooks and the lectures that accompany them are inconsistent with the nature of student learning. Some students manage to learn despite the problems from this emphasis, but educators can do much…

University Students' Strategies for Constructing Hypothesis When Tackling Paper-and-Pencil Tasks in Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guisasola, Jenaro; Ceberio, Mikel; Zubimendi, Jose Luis

2006-01-01

The study we present tries to explore how first year engineering students formulate hypotheses in order to construct their own problem solving structure when confronted with problems in physics. Under the constructivistic perspective of the teaching-learning process, the formulation of hypotheses plays a key role in contrasting the coherence of…

Fixing America's College Attainment Problems: It's about More than Affordability. Critical Considerations for Any New Federal-State Partnership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santos, Jose Luis; Haycock, Kati

2016-01-01

In response to mounting concerns about the cost of college, lawmakers have proposed major new partnerships between the federal government and states to tackle college affordability. The Education Trust maintains that any new federal-state proposal aimed at making college more affordable must also simultaneously address completion problems by…

Aiming Talent Development toward Creative Eminence in the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olszewski-Kubilius, Paula; Subotnik, Rena F.; Worrell, Frank C.

2016-01-01

Much has been written about the social and scientific problems that face the world in the 21st century, including climate change and economic inequality. In this context, the development of talented individuals who can tackle these problems is most important. In this article, the authors discuss the implications of 21st-century challenges for the…

Evaluating the Relevance of Educational Videos Using BKT and Big Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacHardy, Zachary; Pardos, Zachary A.

2015-01-01

Along with the advent of MOOCs and other online learning platforms such as Khan Academy, the role of online education has continued to grow in relation to that of traditional on-campus instruction. Rather than tackle the problem of evaluating large educational units such as entire online courses, this paper approaches a smaller problem: exploring…

Community How To Guide On Underage Drinking Prevention: Coalition Building.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Association of Governors' Highway Safety Representatives.

Coalitions have been used successfully in the United States to tackle a number of seemingly intractable problems. For communities that want to reduce their underage drinking problem, putting together a broad-based coalition can bring substantial dividends. In this guide, readers will learn the steps that bring together a diverse group of people in…

Live Action Role Play and the Development of Teacher Competences: Evaluation of "Everyday Life in the Classroom"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imhof, Margarete; Starker, Ulrike; Spaude, Elena

2016-01-01

Building on Dörner's (1996) theory of complex problem-solving, a learning scenario for teacher students was created and tested. Classroom management is interpreted as a complex problem, which requires the integration of competing interests and tackling multiple, simultaneous tasks under time pressure and with limited information. In addition,…

Creativity in Unique Problem-Solving in Mathematics and Its Influence on Motivation for Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishara, Saied

2016-01-01

This research study investigates the ability of students to tackle the solving of unique mathematical problems in the domain of numerical series, verbal and formal, and its influence on the motivation of junior high students with learning disabilities in the Arab sector. Two instruments were used to collect the data: mathematical series were…

Tackling U.S. energy challenges and opportunities: preliminary policy recommendations for enhancing energy innovation in the United States

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

Anadon, Laura Diaz; Gallagher, Kelly Sims; Bunn, Matthew

2009-02-18

The report offers preliminary recommendations for near-term actions to strengthen the U.S. effort to develop and deploy advanced energy technologies. The report comes as the Obama Administration and the 111th U.S. Congress face enormous challenges and opportunities in tackling the pressing security, economic, and environmental problems posed by the energy sector. Improving the technologies of energy supply and end-use is a prerequisite for surmounting these challenges in a timely and cost-effective way, and this report elaborates on how policy can support develop of these important energy technologies.

Weighty Issues for Kids: Taking Aim at Childhood Obesity

MedlinePlus

... Weighty Issues for Kids Taking Aim at Childhood Obesity Send us your comments Kids face a lot ... of lifelong medical conditions. That problem is childhood obesity. Kids won’t be able to tackle this ...

Periodic reference tracking control approach for smart material actuators with complex hysteretic characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Zhiyong; Hao, Lina; Song, Bo; Yang, Ruiguo; Cao, Ruimin; Cheng, Yu

2016-10-01

Micro/nano positioning technologies have been attractive for decades for their various applications in both industrial and scientific fields. The actuators employed in these technologies are typically smart material actuators, which possess inherent hysteresis that may cause systems behave unexpectedly. Periodic reference tracking capability is fundamental for apparatuses such as scanning probe microscope, which employs smart material actuators to generate periodic scanning motion. However, traditional controller such as PID method cannot guarantee accurate fast periodic scanning motion. To tackle this problem and to conduct practical implementation in digital devices, this paper proposes a novel control method named discrete extended unparallel Prandtl-Ishlinskii model based internal model (d-EUPI-IM) control approach. To tackle modeling uncertainties, the robust d-EUPI-IM control approach is investigated, and the associated sufficient stabilizing conditions are derived. The advantages of the proposed controller are: it is designed and represented in discrete form, thus practical for digital devices implementation; the extended unparallel Prandtl-Ishlinskii model can precisely represent forward/inverse complex hysteretic characteristics, thus can reduce modeling uncertainties and benefits controllers design; in addition, the internal model principle based control module can be utilized as a natural oscillator for tackling periodic references tracking problem. The proposed controller was verified through comparative experiments on a piezoelectric actuator platform, and convincing results have been achieved.

The Role of Labour Inspectorates in Tackling the Psychosocial Risks at Work in Europe: Problems and Perspectives

PubMed Central

Toukas, Dimitrios; Delichas, Miltiadis; Toufekoula, Chryssoula; Spyrouli, Anastasia

2015-01-01

Significant changes in the past year have taken place in the world of work that are bringing new challenges with regard to employee safety and health. These changes have led to emerging psychosocial risks (PSRs) at work. The risks are primarily linked to how work is designed, organized, and managed, and to the economic and social frame of work. These factors have increased the level of work-related stress and can lead to serious deterioration in mental and physical health. In tackling PSRs, the European labor inspectorates can have an important role by enforcing preventive and/or corrective interventions in the content and context of work. However, to improve working conditions, unilateral interventions in the context and content of work are insufficient and require adopting a common strategy to tackle PSRs, based on a holistic approach. The implementation of a common strategy by the European Labor Inspectorate for tackling PSRs is restricted by the lack of a common legislative frame with regard to PSR evaluation and management, the different levels of labor inspectors' training, and the different levels of employees' and employers' health and safety culture. PMID:26929837

Cloud Computing Techniques for Space Mission Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arrieta, Juan; Senent, Juan

2014-01-01

The overarching objective of space mission design is to tackle complex problems producing better results, and faster. In developing the methods and tools to fulfill this objective, the user interacts with the different layers of a computing system.

Tackling a Problem School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowe, Robert B.; Gervais, Robert L.

1984-01-01

Case study of a new principal who turns around an elementary school with a misbehaving student body and and apathetic staff by setting, publicizing, and consistently enforcing clear rules; documenting infractions; involving parents; encouraging student responsibility; and requiring lesson plans. (DCS)

Towards practical multiscale approach for analysis of reinforced concrete structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moyeda, Arturo; Fish, Jacob

2017-12-01

We present a novel multiscale approach for analysis of reinforced concrete structural elements that overcomes two major hurdles in utilization of multiscale technologies in practice: (1) coupling between material and structural scales due to consideration of large representative volume elements (RVE), and (2) computational complexity of solving complex nonlinear multiscale problems. The former is accomplished using a variant of computational continua framework that accounts for sizeable reinforced concrete RVEs by adjusting the location of quadrature points. The latter is accomplished by means of reduced order homogenization customized for structural elements. The proposed multiscale approach has been verified against direct numerical simulations and validated against experimental results.

Confusing Aspects in the Calculation of the Electrostatic Potential of an Infinite Line of Charge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jimenez, J. L.; Campos, I.; Roa-Neri, J. A. E.

2012-01-01

In this work we discuss the trick of eliminating infinite potential of reference arguing that it corresponds to a constant of integration, in the problem of determining the electrostatic potential of an infinite line of charge with uniform density, and show how the problem must be tackled properly. The usual procedure is confusing for most…

Collection and curation of IDPs in the stratosphere and below. Part 2: The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maurette, Michel; Hammer, C.; Harvey, R.; Immel, G.; Kurat, G.; Taylor, S.

1994-01-01

In a companion paper, Zolensky discusses interplanetary dust particles (IDP's) collected in the stratosphere. Here, we describe the recovery of much larger unmelted to partially melted IDP's from the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheet, and discuss problems arising in their collection and curation, as well as future prospects for tackling these problems.

Eleven quick tips for running an interdisciplinary short course for new graduate students.

PubMed

Saunders, Timothy E; He, Cynthia Y; Koehl, Patrice; Ong, L L Sharon; So, Peter T C

2018-03-01

Quantitative reasoning and techniques are increasingly ubiquitous across the life sciences. However, new graduate researchers with a biology background are often not equipped with the skills that are required to utilize such techniques correctly and efficiently. In parallel, there are increasing numbers of engineers, mathematicians, and physical scientists interested in studying problems in biology with only basic knowledge of this field. Students from such varied backgrounds can struggle to engage proactively together to tackle problems in biology. There is therefore a need to establish bridges between those disciplines. It is our proposal that the beginning of graduate school is the appropriate time to initiate those bridges through an interdisciplinary short course. We have instigated an intensive 10-day course that brought together new graduate students in the life sciences from across departments within the National University of Singapore. The course aimed at introducing biological problems as well as some of the quantitative approaches commonly used when tackling those problems. We have run the course for three years with over 100 students attending. Building on this experience, we share 11 quick tips on how to run such an effective, interdisciplinary short course for new graduate students in the biosciences.

Cognition of an expert tackling an unfamiliar conceptual physics problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schuster, David; Undreiu, Adriana

2009-11-01

We have investigated and analyzed the cognition of an expert tackling a qualitative conceptual physics problem of an unfamiliar type. Our goal was to elucidate the detailed cognitive processes and knowledge elements involved, irrespective of final solution form, and consider implications for instruction. The basic but non-trivial problem was to find qualitatively the direction of acceleration of a pendulum bob at various stages of its motion, a problem originally studied by Reif and Allen. Methodology included interviews, introspection, retrospection and self-reported metacognition. Multiple facets of cognition were revealed, with different reasoning strategies used at different stages and for different points on the path. An account is given of the zigzag thinking paths and interplay of reasoning modes and schema elements involved. We interpret the cognitive processes in terms of theoretical concepts that emerged, namely: case-based, principle-based, experiential-intuitive and practical-heuristic reasoning; knowledge elements and schemata; activation; metacognition and epistemic framing. The complexity of cognition revealed in this case study contrasts with the tidy principle-based solutions we present to students. The pervasive role of schemata, case-based reasoning, practical heuristic strategies, and their interplay with physics principles is noteworthy, since these aspects of cognition are generally neither recognized nor taught. The schema/reasoning-mode perspective has direct application in science teaching, learning and problem-solving.

Clean Air Act Requirements and History

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

In 1970 congress designed the Clean Air Act to combat a variety of air pollution problems, and to tackle emerging pollution threats such as public health, national welfare, toxic air pollutants, acid rain, protection of the ozone layer, and regional haze.

Advice to Policy Makers Who Would Tackle Syria: The Problem with Problem Solving

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-01-01

consensus on the specific way forward in Syria, there is one thing most do agree on; Syria is complex. It is complex in the familiar use of that term...SYRIA SYRIA SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES | 125 strengthen stabilizing loops (ones that keep things from getting worse) or virtuous cycles (ones that make... things worse and worse over time). Second, and more importantly, affecting patterns can be the key to solving the problem of strained or insufficient

The growing problems of dental caries and obesity: an Australian perspective.

PubMed

Hopcraft, M S; Beaumont, S

2016-10-07

Preventable diet-related diseases such as dental caries and obesity are a growing global problem, causing a significant burden on public health systems. Although there has been good evidence for the links between sugar consumption and dental caries for many decades, we are now seeing stronger links implicating sugar in obesity. There is a growing worldwide movement to tackle these problems by targeting the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages through a range of public policy measures.

Learning the Digital Way: Evaluating Progress, Tackling Challenges. Technology Counts, 2015. Education Week. Volume 34, Number 35

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Virginia B., Ed.

2015-01-01

Lofty ed-tech visions are always tempered by reality. Unexpected problems that arose during a launch of a 1-to-1 computing program and ambitious digital curriculum initiative in Los Angeles led to the dialing back of the effort. Financial, legal, and managerial repercussions continue to swirl in the wake. These problems should not prevent schools…

All in a Knot of One Another's Labours: Self-Determination, Network Organising and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pedler, Mike

2012-01-01

This essay is about how to learn to organise to tackle the intractable and most difficult problems of organisations and societies. It opens with a discussion of the nature of such problems, which are the spur for Revans' action learning and the focus of some recent thinking on leadership. Action learning works on the basis of peer relationships…

Searching for Words: One Strategic Use of the Mother Tongue by Advanced Spanish EFL Writers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Liz; Roca de Larios, Julio

2010-01-01

Studies of cognitive processes in SL writing have paid attention to the strategies that writers use to tackle problems in composing. In text-generation, finding lexical items in the L2 to express their meanings is one of the most crucial problems writers have to face, for reasons related to the availability and accessibility of relevant linguistic…

A Study of the Spelling Errors Committed by Students of English in Saudi Arabia: Exploration and Remedial Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hameed, Paikar Fatima Mazhar

2016-01-01

The craziness of English spelling has undeniably perplexed learners, especially in an EFL context as in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In these situations, among other obstacles, learners also have to tackle the perpetual and unavoidable problem of MT interference. Sadly, this perplexity takes the shape of a real problem in the language classroom…

Linguistic Challenges in the Mathematical Register for EFL Learners: Linguistic and Multimodal Strategies to Help Learners Tackle Mathematics Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Simon

2015-01-01

In learning mathematics through English, one of the major challenges facing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners is understanding the language used to present word problems in mathematics texts. Without comprehending such language, learners are not able to carry out the targeted calculations no matter how familiar they are with the…

SLIM: A Big Turn for Ion Separation

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

Smith, Dick; Ibrahim, Yehia

Researchers at PNNL have drastically increased the speed and separation of ions by tackling one problem: turning ions around a corner. Their technology, Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulations, or SLIM, could take the form of new instruments for doctors and other applications.

Graviton fluctuations erase the cosmological constant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wetterich, C.

2017-10-01

Graviton fluctuations induce strong non-perturbative infrared renormalization effects for the cosmological constant. The functional renormalization flow drives a positive cosmological constant towards zero, solving the cosmological constant problem without the need to tune parameters. We propose a simple computation of the graviton contribution to the flow of the effective potential for scalar fields. Within variable gravity, with effective Planck mass proportional to the scalar field, we find that the potential increases asymptotically at most quadratically with the scalar field. The solutions of the derived cosmological equations lead to an asymptotically vanishing cosmological "constant" in the infinite future, providing for dynamical dark energy in the present cosmological epoch. Beyond a solution of the cosmological constant problem, our simplified computation also entails a sizeable positive graviton-induced anomalous dimension for the quartic Higgs coupling in the ultraviolet regime, substantiating the successful prediction of the Higgs boson mass within the asymptotic safety scenario for quantum gravity.

Innovative park-and-ride management for livable communities.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-08-31

Park-and-ride (P&R) has been recognized as an effective way to tackle the challenge of the last-mile problem in public transportation, i.e., connecting transit stations to final destinations. Although the design and operations of P&R facilities have ...

In defense of basic science funding: today's scientific discovery is tomorrow's medical advance.

PubMed

Tessier-Lavigne, Marc

2013-06-01

In this address, I will discuss the importance of basic science in tackling our health problems. I will also describe how the funding cuts are damaging our economic competitiveness and turning our young people away from science.

AI AND SAR APPROACHES FOR PREDICTING CHEMICAL CARCINOGENICITY: SURVEY AND STATUS REPORT

EPA Science Inventory

A wide variety of artificial intelligence (AI) and structure-activity relationship (SAR approaches have been applied to tackling the general problem of predicting rodent chemical carcinogenicity. Given the diversity of chemical structures and mechanisms relative to this endpoin...

The Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN): Linking Local and Global Scales for Addressing an Ecological Consequence of Global Change

Treesearch

Christoph Kueffer; Curtis Daehler; Hansjörg Dietz; Keith McDougall; Catherine Parks; Aníbal Pauchard; Lisa Rew

2014-01-01

Many modern environmental problems span vastly different spatial scales, from the management of local ecosystems to understanding globally interconnected processes, and addressing them through international policy. MIREN tackles one such “glocal” (global/local) environmental problem – plant invasions in mountains – through a transdisciplinary, multi-scale learning...

Comfortable with Chaos: Operational Design in the Naval Special Warfare Planning Process

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-05-08

President Alvaro Uribe Velez took office, Colombia was enduring a multi- faceted and interactively complex strategic situation. Three major insurgent groups...President Uribe took office and designed a comprehensive strategy to tackle the "wicked" problem. President Uribe designed an operational approach that...government -unattainable by previous presidents. From 2002 to 2006, the Uribe administration reframed 19 their understanding of the problem and

Update in the treatment of schizophrenia.

PubMed

Katz, I; Kac, M

1993-04-01

The large number of drugs available to treat schizophrenia and the emergence of atypical and newer agents that provide efficiency with lessening of side effects may not only serve to provide more amelioration against this disease, but may also help us to unravel the neurochemical defects of the disorder. Despite these encouraging trends, the reality is that schizophrenia is still a devastating illness for a sizeable minority affected with the condition, that a 'cure' is not yet possible, and that drug therapies alone will not provide all that is required in acute or continuing management. Supporting care in the community for patient and family are just as important as pharmacotherapy in managing this problem.

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

Cadman, R.; Krueger, K.; Spinka, H.

The small asymmetries measured at G{sub {gamma}} = 7.5 during the RHIC spin commissioning were a serious concern. In earlier runs, asymmetries double those from the spin commissioning time (September 2000) had sometimes been observed, and there had been few changes to the AGS polarimeter hardware or operating conditions. Recently, the observed changes in the asymmetries measured at G{sub {gamma}} = 7:5 have been ascribed to contamination of the carbon target asymmetry with that from the fishline target and vice-versa, because of the sizeable beam spot size compared to the separation of the targets. This note addresses this hypothesis usingmore » the observed asymmetries. This problem could directly impact spin physics at RHIC.« less

Skeletal muscle mechanics: questions, problems and possible solutions.

PubMed

Herzog, Walter

2017-09-16

Skeletal muscle mechanics have been studied ever since people have shown an interest in human movement. However, our understanding of muscle contraction and muscle mechanical properties has changed fundamentally with the discovery of the sliding filament theory in 1954 and associated cross-bridge theory in 1957. Nevertheless, experimental evidence suggests that our knowledge of the mechanisms of contraction is far from complete, and muscle properties and muscle function in human movement remain largely unknown.In this manuscript, I am trying to identify some of the crucial challenges we are faced with in muscle mechanics, offer possible solutions to questions, and identify problems that might be worthwhile exploring in the future. Since it is impossible to tackle all (worthwhile) problems in a single manuscript, I identified three problems that are controversial, important, and close to my heart. They may be identified as follows: (i) mechanisms of muscle contraction, (ii) in vivo whole muscle mechanics and properties, and (iii) force-sharing among synergistic muscles. These topics are fundamental to our understanding of human movement and movement control, and they contain a series of unknowns and challenges to be explored in the future.It is my hope that this paper may serve as an inspiration for some, may challenge current beliefs in selected areas, tackle important problems in the area of muscle mechanics, physiology and movement control, and may guide and focus some of the thinking of future muscle mechanics research.

The Human Communication Research Centre dialogue database.

PubMed

Anderson, A H; Garrod, S C; Clark, A; Boyle, E; Mullin, J

1992-10-01

The HCRC dialogue database consists of over 700 transcribed and coded dialogues from pairs of speakers aged from seven to fourteen. The speakers are recorded while tackling co-operative problem-solving tasks and the same pairs of speakers are recorded over two years tackling 10 different versions of our two tasks. In addition there are over 200 dialogues recorded between pairs of undergraduate speakers engaged on versions of the same tasks. Access to the database, and to its accompanying custom-built search software, is available electronically over the JANET system by contacting liz@psy.glasgow.ac.uk, from whom further information about the database and a user's guide to the database can be obtained.

Innovative park-and-ride management for livable communities : final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-08-31

Park-and-ride (P&R) has been recognized as an effective way to tackle the challenge of the : last-mile problem in public transportation, i.e., connecting transit stations to final destinations. : Although the design and operations of P&R facilities h...

Geochemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brett, Robin; Hanshaw, Bruce B.

1978-01-01

The past year has seen the development of certain fields of geochemical research including Nd-Sm isotope studies of meteorites and ancient terrestrial rocks; the use of the consortium approach of assembling a multidisciplined team to tackle a problem; and the handling and analysis of small quantities of materials. (Author/MA)

Venous thromboembolism: a UK perspective.

PubMed

Kakkar, Ajay

2009-07-01

Venous thromboembolism remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the UK, and its dangers, particularly in hospitalized patients, have long been recognized. Recent measures to tackle this problem and new treatments should alleviate the burden of venous thromboembolism for patients, their families and hospital services.

U.S.A.: Illiteracy--Why and How to Tackle It.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Literacy Work, 1978

1978-01-01

Reviews the adult illiteracy problem in the United States and explains a U.S. experimental adult literacy program titled the apperception interaction method (AIM). It is noted that AIM involves reading, writing, discussion, and the taking of practical action by participants. (LRA)

Measuring the Value of AI in Space Science and Exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blair, B.; Parr, J.; Diamond, B.; Pittman, B.; Rasky, D.

2017-10-01

FDL is tackling knowledge gaps useful to the space program by forming small teams of industrial partners, cutting-edge AI researchers and space science domain experts, and tasking them to solve problems that are important to NASA as well as humanity's future.

Managers with Impact: Verstile and Inconsistent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skinner, Wickham; Sasser, W. Earl

1977-01-01

Based on analysis of 31 management case studies, the authors conclude that managers who are consistent in the way they tackle day-to-day problems are likely to be much less successful than managers who analyze each situation individually and adjust their approach accordingly. (Author/JG)

Cost-effectiveness Analysis on Measures to Improve China's Coal-fired Industrial Boiler

DOE PAGES

Liu, Manzhi; Shen, Bo; Han, Yafeng; ...

2015-08-01

Tackling coal-burning industrial boiler is becoming one of the key programs to solve the environmental problem in China. Assessing the economics of various options to address coal-fired boiler is essential to identify cost-effective solutions. This paper discusses our work in conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis on various types of improvement measures ranging from energy efficiency retrofits to switch from coal to other fuels in China. Sensitivity analysis was also performed in order to understand the impacts of some economic factors such as discount rate and energy price on the economics of boiler improvement options. The results show that nine out ofmore » 14 solutions are cost-effective, and a lower discount rate and higher energy price will result in more energy efficiency measures being cost-effective. Both monetary and non-monetary barriers to energy-efficiency improvement are discussed and policies to tackle these barriers are recommended. Our research aims at providing a methodology to assess cost-effective solutions to boiler problems.« less

The factors affecting Nigeria's success toward implementation of global public health priorities.

PubMed

Echebiri, Vitalis C

2015-06-01

This paper examines the challenges facing the Nigerian government toward the implementation of global public health priories. The Nigerian government recognizes the need to implement these priorities by putting in place the necessary policy framework, but political instability, poor infrastructural development and inadequate funding have remained barriers toward the achievement of success in implementing these priorities. The rest of the paper elucidates the fact that despite leadership and influence from the World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies, and some responses from the Nigerian government, tackling these public health problems requires much more fundamental reform to primary health services and a reduction in poverty. Although the government has shown enough political will to tackle these problems, it is expected that a better result will be achieved through injecting more funds into the Nigerian health sector, and deploying astute health administrators to manage the sector rather than pure health professionals without managerial acumen. © The Author(s) 2014.

A Finite-Volume approach for compressible single- and two-phase flows in flexible pipelines with fluid-structure interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daude, F.; Galon, P.

2018-06-01

A Finite-Volume scheme for the numerical computations of compressible single- and two-phase flows in flexible pipelines is proposed based on an approximate Godunov-type approach. The spatial discretization is here obtained using the HLLC scheme. In addition, the numerical treatment of abrupt changes in area and network including several pipelines connected at junctions is also considered. The proposed approach is based on the integral form of the governing equations making it possible to tackle general equations of state. A coupled approach for the resolution of fluid-structure interaction of compressible fluid flowing in flexible pipes is considered. The structural problem is solved using Euler-Bernoulli beam finite elements. The present Finite-Volume method is applied to ideal gas and two-phase steam-water based on the Homogeneous Equilibrium Model (HEM) in conjunction with a tabulated equation of state in order to demonstrate its ability to tackle general equations of state. The extensive application of the scheme for both shock tube and other transient flow problems demonstrates its capability to resolve such problems accurately and robustly. Finally, the proposed 1-D fluid-structure interaction model appears to be computationally efficient.

Modeling an integrated hospital management planning problem using integer optimization approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sitepu, Suryati; Mawengkang, Herman; Irvan

2017-09-01

Hospital is a very important institution to provide health care for people. It is not surprising that nowadays the people’s demands for hospital is increasing. However, due to the rising cost of healthcare services, hospitals need to consider efficiencies in order to overcome these two problems. This paper deals with an integrated strategy of staff capacity management and bed allocation planning to tackle these problems. Mathematically, the strategy can be modeled as an integer linear programming problem. We solve the model using a direct neighborhood search approach, based on the notion of superbasic variables.

A bottom up approach for engineering catchments through sustainable runoff management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilkinson, M.; Quinn, P. F.; Jonczyk, J.; Burke, S.

2010-12-01

There is no doubt that our catchments are under great stress. There have been many accounts around the world of severe flood events and water quality issues within channels. As a result of these, ecological habitats in rivers are also under pressure. Within the United Kingdom, all these issues have been identified as key target areas for policy. Traditionally this has been managed by a policy driven top down approach which is usually ineffective. A one ‘size fits all’ attitude often does not work. This paper presents a case study in northern England whereby a bottom up approach is applied to multipurpose managing of catchments at the source (in the order of 1-10km2). This includes simultaneous tackling of water quality, flooding and ecological issues by creating sustainable runoff management solutions such as storage ponds, wetlands, beaver dams and willow riparian features. In order to identify the prevailing issues in a specific catchment, full and transparent stakeholder engagement is essential, with everybody who has a vested interest in the catchment being involved from the beginning. These problems can then be dealt with through the use of a novel catchment management toolkit, which is transferable to similar scale catchments. However, evidence collected on the ground also allows for upscaling of the toolkit. The process gathers the scientific evidence about the effectiveness of existing or new measures, which can really change the catchment functions. Still, we need to get better at communicating the science to policy makers and policy therefore must facilitate a bottom up approach to land and water management. We show a test site for this approach in the Belford burn catchment (6km2), northern England. This catchment has problems with flooding and water quality. Increased sediment loads are affecting the nearby estuary which is an important ecological zone and numerous floods have affected the local village. A catchment engineering toolkit has been developed that puts in place novel measures to tackle diffuse pollution and reduce flood risk whilst collecting the science needed to influence the policy about these measures. This has been possible through four key practices: full stakeholder engagement, a problem solving agenda set in place, a bottom up approach to solving problems, and the collection of the appropriate science to support the benefits. Hands on, multi-objective work is the most cost effective way to manage catchments. Tackling water quality issues and controlling fast pathway runoff at the source in partnership with farmers and local landowners has proved to be the key to success. Tackling issues in sub-catchments can lead to solving problems at the catchment scale.

Question Generation for Learning by Reading

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

Socratic Method has been recognized as a way of guiding students to understanding by prompting them to explore a domain through the use of thorough...questioning. We believe that the Socratic tutor is also role- modeling the appropriate questions to ask when tackling a problem or exploring a new...them when related problem or novel domains present themselves. Because of this, we are wiring the Socratic Method into the heart of the Ruminator’s

Development and Demonstration of Autonomous Behaviors for Urban Environment Exploration

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-01

exploration, mapping, localization, autonomy, lidar , SLAM 1. INTRODUCTION As global conflicts move into more urban settings, unmanned ground vehicles...mounted Hokuyo lidar is paired with a vertically mounted Hokuyo lidar as an inexpensive way for 3D perception of the environment. In addition, a pair...and mapping ( SLAM ) problem do exist,2–4 most have yet to tackle the problem of online SLAM throughout a multi-story building and/or incorporating

Methodological difficulties of conducting agroecological studies from a statistical perspective

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Statistical methods for analysing agroecological data might not be able to help agroecologists to solve all of the current problems concerning crop and animal husbandry, but such methods could well help agroecologists to assess, tackle, and resolve several agroecological issues in a more reliable an...

Making Sense of School Turnarounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hess, Frederick M.

2012-01-01

Today, in a sector flooded with $3.5 billion in School Improvement Grant funds and the resulting improvement plans, there's great faith that "turnaround" strategies are a promising way to tackle stubborn problems with persistently low-performing schools. Unlike traditional reform efforts, with their emphasis on incremental improvement, turnarounds…

Under Control.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLawhorn, Kerry

2001-01-01

Explains how the Scotland County School District in Laurinburg, North Carolina, tackled the problem of controlling building and room keys for fifteen K-12 schools and 7,000 students by marrying a computerized records management system for key tracking with a patented hardware system that produces keys that can't be duplicated. (GR)

Marketing Education's National Marketing Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zwissler, Karen

1987-01-01

Discusses formation of the National Council for Marketing Education and how its Marketing Strategy Committee developed a plan to tackle the image problem. The committee chose five target audiences and developed a strategy to reach each target. The plan was introduced in October 1987 through a national videoconference. (CH)

Traffic safety issues in North Dakota : phase II : driver knowledge, attitude, behavior and beliefs : focus group : young male drivers

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-10-01

Traffic safety is a widespread social concern. Tackling the problem requires understanding the people : who are driving. This includes information about driver behavior, but also about perceptions these drivers : hold regarding their driving. North D...

Comparing clinical and demographic characteristics of people with mental illness in hospital- and community-based residential rehabilitation units in Queensland.

PubMed

Meehan, Tom; Stedman, Terry; Parker, Stephen; Curtis, Bretine; Jones, Donna

2017-05-01

Objective The aim of the present study was to examine care pathways and characteristics of mental health consumers participating in both hospital- and community-based residential rehabilitation programs. Methods An audit of consumers (n=240) in all publicly funded residential rehabilitation units in Queensland was performed on the same day in 2013. Data collection focused on demographic characteristics, clinical information and measures of consumer functioning. Results Significant differences emerged for consumers in community- and hospital-based services with regard to age, length of stay, functioning, Mental Health Act status, guardianship status, family contact and risk of violence. Consumers in hospital-based programs have more severe and complex problems. Conclusions Consumers in residential rehabilitation units have high levels of disability, poor physical health and high levels of vulnerability. Nonetheless, it is likely that a sizeable proportion of consumers occupying rehabilitation beds in Queensland could be discharged if more 'step-down' options to move patients on were available. What is known about the topic? A small subgroup of people with severe and complex mental health problems is likely to require time in a residential rehabilitation program. This group is characterised by failure to respond to treatment, severe negative symptoms and some degree of cognitive impairment. What does this paper add? Patients currently occupying residential rehabilitation beds in Queensland have high levels of disability, poor physical health and high levels of vulnerability. Patients in hospital-based programs are more severely disabled than those in community-based programs. What are the implications for practitioners? It is likely that a sizeable proportion of patients occupying rehabilitation beds in Queensland could be discharged if more 'step-down' options were available. Future planning initiatives need to focus on developing a greater array of community support options to facilitate the discharge of people from residential services.

Longitudinal trajectories of peer relations in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Mok, Pearl L H; Pickles, Andrew; Durkin, Kevin; Conti-Ramsden, Gina

2014-05-01

Peer relations is a vulnerable area of functioning in children with specific language impairment (SLI), but little is known about the developmental trajectories of individuals. Peer problems were investigated over a 9-year period (from 7 to 16 years of age) in 171 children with a history of SLI. Discrete factor growth modelling was used to chart developmental trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate factors associated with group membership. Four distinct developmental trajectories were identified: low-level/no problems in peer relations (22.2% of participants), childhood-limited problems (12.3%), childhood-onset persistent problems (39.2%) and adolescent-onset problems (26.3%). Risk of poor trajectories of peer relations was greater for those children with pragmatic language difficulties. Prosocial behaviour was the factor most strongly associated with trajectory group membership. Overall, the more prosocial children with better pragmatic language skills and lower levels of emotional problems had less difficulty in developing peer relations. Analysis of developmental trajectories enriches our understanding of social development. A sizeable minority in the present sample sustained positive relations through childhood and adolescence, and others overcame early difficulties to achieve low levels of problems by their early teens; the majority, however, showed childhood-onset persistent or adolescent-onset problems. © 2014 The Authors Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley © Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Network planning under uncertainties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, Kwok Shing; Cheung, Kwok Wai

2008-11-01

One of the main focuses for network planning is on the optimization of network resources required to build a network under certain traffic demand projection. Traditionally, the inputs to this type of network planning problems are treated as deterministic. In reality, the varying traffic requirements and fluctuations in network resources can cause uncertainties in the decision models. The failure to include the uncertainties in the network design process can severely affect the feasibility and economics of the network. Therefore, it is essential to find a solution that can be insensitive to the uncertain conditions during the network planning process. As early as in the 1960's, a network planning problem with varying traffic requirements over time had been studied. Up to now, this kind of network planning problems is still being active researched, especially for the VPN network design. Another kind of network planning problems under uncertainties that has been studied actively in the past decade addresses the fluctuations in network resources. One such hotly pursued research topic is survivable network planning. It considers the design of a network under uncertainties brought by the fluctuations in topology to meet the requirement that the network remains intact up to a certain number of faults occurring anywhere in the network. Recently, the authors proposed a new planning methodology called Generalized Survivable Network that tackles the network design problem under both varying traffic requirements and fluctuations of topology. Although all the above network planning problems handle various kinds of uncertainties, it is hard to find a generic framework under more general uncertainty conditions that allows a more systematic way to solve the problems. With a unified framework, the seemingly diverse models and algorithms can be intimately related and possibly more insights and improvements can be brought out for solving the problem. This motivates us to seek a generic framework for solving the network planning problem under uncertainties. In addition to reviewing the various network planning problems involving uncertainties, we also propose that a unified framework based on robust optimization can be used to solve a rather large segment of network planning problem under uncertainties. Robust optimization is first introduced in the operations research literature and is a framework that incorporates information about the uncertainty sets for the parameters in the optimization model. Even though robust optimization is originated from tackling the uncertainty in the optimization process, it can serve as a comprehensive and suitable framework for tackling generic network planning problems under uncertainties. In this paper, we begin by explaining the main ideas behind the robust optimization approach. Then we demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed framework by giving out some examples of how the robust optimization framework can be applied to the current common network planning problems under uncertain environments. Next, we list some practical considerations for solving the network planning problem under uncertainties with the proposed framework. Finally, we conclude this article with some thoughts on the future directions for applying this framework to solve other network planning problems.

Parents Who Abuse: What Are They Thinking?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seng, Alexandra C.; Prinz, Ronald J.

2008-01-01

Child abuse is a major social concern around the world. Important to tackling the problem is an understanding of the mechanisms contributing to abusive parenting. This article brings together research on the cognitive variables associated with abusive or high-risk parenting. Considered are dysfunctional child-centered and parent-centered…

Operationalizing Counter Threat Finance Strategies

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

paying with cash, check, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for a wide range of services, as well as for digital or hard...archive/publications-archive/tackling-wicked- problems, accessed on March 3, 2014. 3. Huns were a nomadic horse people migrating from Cen- tral Asia

Teaching Analytical Chemistry to Pharmacy Students: A Combined, Iterative Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masania, Jinit; Grootveld, Martin; Wilson, Philippe B.

2018-01-01

Analytical chemistry has often been a difficult subject to teach in a classroom or lecture-based context. Numerous strategies for overcoming the inherently practical-based difficulties have been suggested, each with differing pedagogical theories. Here, we present a combined approach to tackling the problem of teaching analytical chemistry, with…

Worldwide Emerging Environmental Issues Affecting the U.S. Military. September 2005 Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-09-01

Environment and global warming issues were mentioned in several speeches delivered by Heads of State and Governments at the UN Summit, however it was...not a dominant theme. There were calls to ratify international treaties designed to tackle environmental and global warming problems, and agreement

Tackling the Problem of Repurposing Web Content

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerber, Nathan; Merker, Lance

2008-01-01

Like many institutions across the country, Utah Valley State College (UVSC) found itself struggling to keep its website current. In the spring of 2003, the UVSC's IT department began looking at alternatives that would simplify and streamline the process of updating the university's web pages. Specifically, they wanted a straightforward way to…

Evaluation and expression analysis of alfalfa genotypes in response to prolonged salt stress

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses that adversely affect plant growth and productivity globally. In order to tackle this complex problem, it is important to link the biochemical and physiological responses with the underlying genetic mechanisms. In this study, we used 12 previous...

Educating Our Black Children: New Directions and Radical Approaches.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Majors, Richard, Ed.

This collection of papers from U.S. and British contributors focuses on positive social inclusion policy and practice for black students. There are 15 chapters in five parts. Part 1, "Tackling Historical and Contemporary Education Problems," includes: (1) "Racism, Policy and the (Mis)Education of Black Children" (David…

Improving Collaborative Learning in Online Software Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neill, Colin J.; DeFranco, Joanna F.; Sangwan, Raghvinder S.

2017-01-01

Team projects are commonplace in software engineering education. They address a key educational objective, provide students critical experience relevant to their future careers, allow instructors to set problems of greater scale and complexity than could be tackled individually, and are a vehicle for socially constructed learning. While all…

Demographic, Employment and Development Trends: The Need for Integrated Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farooq, Ghazi M.; MacKellar, F. Landis

1990-01-01

The authors contend that problems associated with rapid population growth in developing countries must be tackled through comprehensive planning. They discuss impacts of demography on labor supply and demand and migration. Then they propose a practical framework for population and human resource development planning and policy formation. (SK)

The Engaged University: International Perspectives on Civic Engagement. International Studies in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, David; Hollister, Robert; Stroud, Susan E.; Babcock, Elizabeth

2011-01-01

"The Engaged University" is a comprehensive empirical account of the global civic engagement movement in higher education. In universities around the world, something extraordinary is underway. Mobilizing their human and intellectual resources, institutions of higher education are directly tackling community problems--combating poverty,…

Measuring walking and cycling using the PABS (pedestrian and bicycling survey) approach : a low-cost survey method for local communities.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-12-01

To tackle the problems of greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, resident quality of life, and public health concerns, communities are using initiatives to spur more walking and cycling. As local governments face hard choices about which progr...

A Dangerous Occupation? Violence in Public Libraries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrugia, Sarah

2002-01-01

Outlines the problem of violence in U.S. and British public libraries, including groups incidents, drunks, unruly youths, and irate patrons. Library staff face managerial apathy and reluctance to tackle. Discusses the reasons for violence, suggests measures to reduce threats and deal with incidents, risk assessment, security measures and staff…

Data Use and Inquiry in Research-Practice Partnerships: Four Case Examples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biag, Manuelito; Gerstein, Amy; Fehrer, Kendra; Sanchez, Monika; Sipes, Laurel

2016-01-01

The four case examples presented in this brief are drawn from the Gardner Center's substantial experience conducting rigorous research in research-practice partnerships. The first case describes a partnership approach that enhances a school district's capacity to use integrated longitudinal data to tackle persistent problems of practice and…

Consultancy on Strategic Information Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pejova, Zdravka, Ed.; Horton, Forest W., Ed.

At the workshop, better management through strategic planning of information and consultancy was discussed as one way in which developing and Eastern European countries could tackle the complex information problems they are facing during the transition to a market economy. The sixteen papers in this volume are grouped into three basic categories:…

A Mind-Set Is a Difficult Thing to Change: Why Reforming Low-Performing Schools Requires Eradicating Negative Beliefs about Students. The Claremont Letter. Volume 2, Issue 3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Gail

2007-01-01

Numerous researchers have devoted their careers to school reform. At the same time, many politicians have gotten elected by promising to fix failing schools. Although a lot of time, energy, and money have been invested in tackling this problem, the problem persists: Too many schools in the United States are failing to prepare too many students for…

Twilight Zones and Cornerstones. A Gnat Robot Double Feature

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-07-01

be the best avenues to pursue. In the first section, we relate some background on recent work in micromotors and propose a new type of actua- tor, a...piezoelectric micromotor , which looks promising for effectively coupling mechanical power out to a load. The second section addresses the problem of...1. Micromotors The first problem we need to tackle in making gnat robots realistic is developing an actuator that can deliver some useful power to a

Dynamic optimization of chemical processes using ant colony framework.

PubMed

Rajesh, J; Gupta, K; Kusumakar, H S; Jayaraman, V K; Kulkarni, B D

2001-11-01

Ant colony framework is illustrated by considering dynamic optimization of six important bench marking examples. This new computational tool is simple to implement and can tackle problems with state as well as terminal constraints in a straightforward fashion. It requires fewer grid points to reach the global optimum at relatively very low computational effort. The examples with varying degree of complexities, analyzed here, illustrate its potential for solving a large class of process optimization problems in chemical engineering.

Improving the quality of mass produced maps

USGS Publications Warehouse

Simley, J.

2001-01-01

Quality is critical in cartography because key decisions are often made based on the information the map communicates. The mass production of digital cartographic information to support geographic information science has now added a new dimension to the problem of cartographic quality, as problems once limited to small volumes can now proliferate in mass production programs. These problems can also affect the economics of map production by diverting a sizeable portion of production cost to pay for rework on maps with poor quality. Such problems are common to general industry-in response, the quality engineering profession has developed a number of successful methods to overcome these problems. Two important methods are the reduction of error through statistical analysis and addressing the quality environment in which people work. Once initial and obvious quality problems have been solved, outside influences periodically appear that cause adverse variations in quality and consequently increase production costs. Such errors can be difficult to detect before the customer is affected. However, a number of statistical techniques can be employed to detect variation so that the problem is eliminated before significant damage is caused. Additionally, the environment in which the workforce operates must be conductive to quality. Managers have a powerful responsibility to create this environment. Two sets of guidelines, known as Deming's Fourteen Points and ISO-9000, provide models for this environment.

Travellers accessing addiction services in Ireland (2007 to 2010): analysis of routine surveillance data.

PubMed

Carew, Anne Marie; Cafferty, Siobhán; Long, Jean; Bellerose, Delphine; Lyons, Suzi

2013-01-01

By accessing addiction treatment services recorded in routine national drug treatment data, the characteristics of Irish Travellers were analyzed to understand their needs and develop policies to tackle issues faced by this community. The number of Traveller cases accessing services increased by 163% between 2007 and 2010. Alcohol and opiates were the most common problem substances reported. Traveller women reported high rates of problem opiate use and risky injecting behaviors, contrary to the perception that problem substance use is a predominantly male issue. This presents a challenge to services to provide targeted, effective services to Travellers with problem substance use.

A multilevel probabilistic beam search algorithm for the shortest common supersequence problem.

PubMed

Gallardo, José E

2012-01-01

The shortest common supersequence problem is a classical problem with many applications in different fields such as planning, Artificial Intelligence and especially in Bioinformatics. Due to its NP-hardness, we can not expect to efficiently solve this problem using conventional exact techniques. This paper presents a heuristic to tackle this problem based on the use at different levels of a probabilistic variant of a classical heuristic known as Beam Search. The proposed algorithm is empirically analysed and compared to current approaches in the literature. Experiments show that it provides better quality solutions in a reasonable time for medium and large instances of the problem. For very large instances, our heuristic also provides better solutions, but required execution times may increase considerably.

Thermohydrological conditions and silica redistribution near high-level nuclear wastes emplaced in saturated geological formations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, A.; Pruess, K.

1988-02-01

Evaluation of the thermohydrological conditions near high-level nuclear waste packages is needed for the design of the waste canister and for overall repository design and performance assessment. Most available studies in this area have assumed that the hydrologic properties of the host rock are not changed in response to the thermal, mechanical, or chemical effects caused by waste emplacement. However, the ramifications of this simplifying assumption have not been substantiated. We have studied dissolution and precipitation of silica in liquid-saturated hydrothermal flow systems, including changes in formation porosity and permeability. Using numerical simulation, we compare predictions of thermohydrological conditions with and without inclusion of silica redistribution effects. Two cases were studied, namely, a canister-scale problem, and a repository-wide thermal convection problem and different pore models were employed for the permeable medium (fractures with uniform or nonuniform cross sections). We find that silica redistribution in water-saturated conditions does not have a sizeable effect on host rock and canister temperatures, pore pressures, or flow velocities.

Training, Communication, and Competence: The Making of Health Care Professionals

PubMed Central

Luong, My-Linh

2009-01-01

The role of medical anthropology in tackling the problems and challenges at the intersections of public health, medicine, and technology was addressed during the 2009 Society for Medical Anthropology Conference at Yale University in an interdisciplinary panel session entitled Training, Communication, and Competence: The Making of Health Care Professionals. PMID:20027287

Reimagining the 21st-Century Land-Grant University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fischer, Karin

2009-01-01

Over the last two years, University of Georgia students and faculty members have worked with community leaders in Sandersville and surrounding Washington County to tackle some of the area's most pressing problems, among them, reversing a doctor shortage and improving air quality to meet federal standards. Their work is part of an effort, now in…

Knight Commission to Fight High Salaries and Recruiting Pressures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolverton, Brad; Lipka, Sara

2007-01-01

Last week, commissioners of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics organized a meeting to tackle recruiting problems and gender inequalities in college sports, but another topic--the high pay of football and men's basketball coaches--came up repeatedly. This article reports on what the commission intends to do in order to…

Barking up the Right Tree

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houston, Paul D.

2006-01-01

The last few years have revealed a growing concern about U.S. global competitiveness, and American schools have been called to account for failing to produce enough engineers and math and science workers to compete in the new global economy. The author argues that the education solutions offered to tackle this problem are too simplistic. Instead…

Prevalence and Correlates of Dating Violence in a National Sample of Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolitzky-Taylor, Kate B.; Ruggiero, Kenneth J.; Danielson, Carla Kmett; Resnick, Heidi S.; Hanson, Rochelle F.; Smith, Daniel W.; Saunders, Benjamin E.; Kilpatrick, Dean G.

2008-01-01

The study aims to investigate the prevalence of serious forms of dating violence in adolescents from a nationally representative sample of adolescents. The results conclude that serious dating violence is highly prevalent among adolescents and a major health problem that needs to be tackled by early detection, prevention and intervention.

Media Detectives: Bridging the Relationship among Empathy, Laugh Tracks, and Gender in Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kanthan, Sruti; Graham, James A.; Azarchi, Lynne

2016-01-01

Empathy in college-age students is decreasing at unprecedented rates. Understanding empathy in children can act as primary prevention in tackling the problem. This study considers laugh tracks' capacity to bias reality, foster empathy, and investigate differences across time and gender in 181 fifth grade students. Findings from this…

Adolescence Behaviour Problems: How to Tackle or Prevent?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumar, V. Jurist Lionial

2013-01-01

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between child hood and adulthood. Adolescent period starts with puberty. The period during which the capability for sexual reproduction is attained; it is marked by changes in both primary and secondary sexual characteristics and is dated from menarche in…

Fund the Child: Tackling Inequity & Antiquity in School Finance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas B. Fordham Foundation & Institute, 2006

2006-01-01

Education funding today is a mess, and a solution is needed that addresses its biggest problems: most disadvantaged students do not receive the funding they need; red tape and overhead waste time and money; and new types of education options, like charter schools, are starved for dollars. Unfortunately, until now, so-called solutions have…

Using Challenging Tasks for Formative Assessment on Quadratic Functions with Senior Secondary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkie, Karina J.

2016-01-01

Senior secondary mathematics students who develop conceptual understanding that moves them beyond "rules without reasons" to connections between related concepts are in a strong place to tackle the more difficult mathematics application problems. Current research is examining how the use of challenging tasks at different levels of…

Measuring Financial Capability and Its Determinants Using Survey Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Mark

2011-01-01

Financial capability, or people's ability to manage and take control of their finances, is receiving increasing interest among policy makers as more people find themselves in difficult financial situations during the current economic downturn. We tackle the problem of how to measure financial capability--with a specific focus on making ends meet…

Community Mobilisation, Gender Equality and Resource Mobilisation in Adult Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Srivastava, Komal; Patel, Ila

2006-01-01

Despite an overall improvement in the educational situation of girls and women in India, there are considerable gender inequalities in education. In the last decade, the Government of India introduced the campaign approach to tackle the problem of widespread illiteracy among women and other socio-economically disadvantaged groups in collaboration…

Pearson's Correlation between Three Variables; Using Students' Basic Knowledge of Geometry for an Exercise in Mathematical Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vos, Pauline

2009-01-01

When studying correlations, how do the three bivariate correlation coefficients between three variables relate? After transforming Pearson's correlation coefficient r into a Euclidean distance, undergraduate students can tackle this problem using their secondary school knowledge of geometry (Pythagoras' theorem and similarity of triangles).…

The Use of Instructional Design in Educational Technology for Effective Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillani, Syeda Nosheen; Gujjar, Aijaz Ahmed; Choudhry, Bushra Naoreen

2008-01-01

Educationists are of the opinion that the educational problems relating to quantity and quality could be tackled by the proper utilization of instructional technology. Instructional technology is a systematic way of designing, carrying out and evaluating the teaching learning process. Instructional technology makes instruction more effective,…

A Contextualized System for Supporting Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gomez, Jorge E.; Huete, Juan F.; Hernandez, Velssy L.

2016-01-01

The dynamics of the world today demands a change in traditional education paradigms to enable the creation of more efficient learning environments, where students will learn more effectively and will play a more active role in their education. They should interact with the knowledge at anytime-anywhere. In order to tackle this problem we should…

Equations and Inequalities: Making Mathematics Accessible to All. PISA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piacentini, Mario; Monticone, Chiara

2016-01-01

More than ever, students need to engage with mathematics concepts, think quantitatively and analytically, and communicate using mathematics. All these skills are central to a young person's preparedness to tackle problems that arise at work and in life beyond the classroom. But the reality is that many students are not familiar with basic…

Integrating ecological and social knowledge: learning from CHANS research

Treesearch

Bruce Shindler; Thomas A. Spies; John P. Bolte; Jeffrey D. Kline

2017-01-01

Scientists are increasingly called upon to integrate across ecological and social disciplines to tackle complex coupled human and natural system (CHANS) problems. Integration of these disciplines is challenging and many scientists do not have experience with large integrated research projects. However, much can be learned about the complicated process of integration...

Poverty, Disability, and Employment: Global Perspectives from the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abidi, Javed; Sharma, Dorodi

2014-01-01

The worldwide problems of disability, poverty, and unemployment stem out of the interaction of multiple factors including social stigma, stereotypes, lack of access to physical infrastructure, information, and enabling environments. Given this, a singular approach toward tackling these interrelated issues falls short. This article attempts to…

A Guide to Implementing Response to Intervention in Long-Term Residential Juvenile Justice Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDaniel, Sara; Heil, Kristen M.; Houchins, David E.; Duchaine, Ellen L.

2011-01-01

Since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004), public schools have been permitted to use a response to intervention model to address academic and social problems of students and identify students with disabilities. As the collective educational community tackles implementation of response to intervention…

Realigning the Focus of Plagiarism Detection Using "Plagiarismdetect.com"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sabapathy, Elangkeeran A/L; Rahim, Rozlan Abd; Jusoff, Kamaruzaman

2009-01-01

The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which "plagiarismdetect.com," an internet help/tool to detect plagiarism helps academicians tackle the ever-growing problem of plagiarism. Concerned with term papers, essays and most of the time with full-blown research reports, a tool like "plagiarismdetect.com" may…

Contact and Context: Sharing Education and Building Relationships in a Divided Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Joanne

2014-01-01

One approach to tackling problems of division in society has been to promote collaboration and engagement between schools separated on ethno-religious lines. Based on some variant of contact theory, the received wisdom is that inter-group encounters can contribute to prejudice reduction and promote more harmonious relationships. Evidence to…

Computing with Connections in Visual Recognition of Origami Objects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sabbah, Daniel

1985-01-01

Summarizes an initial foray in tackling artificial intelligence problems using a connectionist approach. The task chosen is visual recognition of Origami objects, and the questions answered are how to construct a connectionist network to represent and recognize projected Origami line drawings and the advantages such an approach would have. (30…

Knowledge Creation and Human Capital for Development: The Role of Graduate Entrepreneurship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitra, Jay; Abubakar, Y. A.; Sagagi, M.

2011-01-01

Purpose: Tackling structural and emergent problems in the labour market, valorising skilled human capital (HC) for opportunity creation, economic development and growth, are some of the key drivers for graduate entrepreneurship. This paper aims to examine developments in Africa, focusing on the significance of improving human capital through…

"Let Your Data Tell a Story:" Climate Change Experts and Students Navigating Disciplinary Argumentation in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Elizabeth Mary; McGowan, Veronica Cassone

2017-01-01

Science education trends promote student engagement in authentic knowledge in practice to tackle personally consequential problems. This study explored how partnering scientists and students on a social media platform supported students' development of disciplinary practice knowledge through practice-based learning with experts during two pilot…

Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academies Press, 2016

2016-01-01

Ethical practice in engineering is critical for ensuring public trust in the field and in its practitioners, especially as engineers increasingly tackle international and socially complex problems that combine technical and ethical challenges. This report aims to raise awareness of the variety of exceptional programs and strategies for improving…

Workers in an Integrating World. World Development Report, 1995. Executive Summary.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

World Bank, Washington, DC.

This executive summary examines the rapid changes occurring in economic markets and employment around the world. The report concludes that problems of low incomes, poor working conditions, and insecurity affecting many of the world's workers can be tackled effectively in ways that reduce poverty and regional inequality. Sound domestic policy and a…

School Bullying: Tools for Avoiding Harm and Liability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGrath, Mary Jo

2006-01-01

Every hour of every day, students experience bullying and harassment at school by their peers. The immediate and long-term impact on the victims' learning capabilities, emotional health, and self-esteem is staggering. " School Bullying: Tools for Avoiding Harm and Liability" tackles this critical problem with an easy-to-use framework that guides…

Heart to Heart, Student to Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambler, Marjane

2010-01-01

AIDS affects thousands of American Indians and Alaska Natives: They have the third highest rate of AIDS diagnosis in the United States, despite having the smallest population. To tackle this problem, the federal agency has provided capacity-building grants to seven tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) for an innovative, peer-to-peer initiative.…

Talk Isn't Cheap: Practicing Deliberation in School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Walter C.

2006-01-01

A deliberation is a discussion aimed at making a decision. In elementary and middle school classrooms, problems that can be tackled with deliberation are, among others, contemplating a new classroom rule, writing a "classroom constitution," and deciding how to share toys fairly. In this article, the author discusses the interactions of students…

Problems and Challenges of Educational Policies in Latin America. The Argentina Viewpoint

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muscará, Francisco

2013-01-01

The objective of this article is to describe the most significant changes which are being carried out in Latin-American educational systems, taking Argentina as a point of reference. To that end, this comparative study tackles the following essential aspects: the principle of equal opportunities and social cohesion; decentralisation of educational…

Personal health record systems and their security protection.

PubMed

Win, Khin Than; Susilo, Willy; Mu, Yi

2006-08-01

The objective of this study is to analyze the security protection of personal health record systems. To achieve this we have investigated different personal health record systems, their security functions, and security issues. We have noted that current security mechanisms are not adequate and we have proposed some security mechanisms to tackle these problems.

Classroom Silence: Voices from Japanese EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harumi, Seiko

2011-01-01

This article explores Japanese EFL learners' classroom silence in a Japanese EFL context. The existence of silence in second language learning contexts can be a source of conflict between students and teachers and even among students themselves. It can also be an obstacle to acquiring the target language. In order to tackle this problem and to…

Making a World of Difference by Looking Locally

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowenstein, Ethan; Smith, Gregory

2017-01-01

By allowing students to ask critical questions about the places and spaces surrounding them, teachers can empower them to develop problem-solving skills to tackle issues and make a difference in their communities. In this article, Smith and Lowenstein offer three wonderful examples of long-standing environmental place-based education projects that…

Peer-Assisted Tutoring in a Chemical Engineering Curriculum: Tutee and Tutor Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kieran, Patricia; O'Neill, Geraldine

2009-01-01

Peer-Assisted Tutorials (PATs), a form of Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL), were introduced to a conventional 4-year honours degree programme in Chemical Engineering. PATs were designed to support students in becoming more self-directed in their learning, to develop student confidence in tackling Chemical Engineering problems and to promote effective…

Presentation Trainer: What Experts and Computers Can Tell about Your Nonverbal Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, J.; Börner, D.; van Rosmalen, P.; Specht, M.

2017-01-01

The ability to present effectively is essential for professionals; therefore, oral communication courses have become part of the curricula for higher education studies. However, speaking in public is still a challenge for many graduates. To tackle this problem, driven by the recent advances in computer vision techniques and prosody analysis,…

Universities Have the Responsibility to Tackle the World's Toughest Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klitgaard, Robert

2008-01-01

Issues that seem intractable not only dominate our news but paralyze our governments. Corruption. Immigration. Religious and cultural conflict. When such issues are raised, too often we roll our eyes and give up before we begin. Using the example of corruption, the author presents ideas for how colleges and universities can help resolve…

AmeriCorps: Getting Things Done for America. Fact Sheet

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corporation for National and Community Service, 2017

2017-01-01

AmeriCorps engages more than 80,000 men and women in intensive service each year at more than 21,000 locations including nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups across the country. AmeriCorps members help communities tackle pressing problems while mobilizing millions of volunteers for the organizations they…

Rapid and Reliable Single Nucleotide Polymorphism-Based Differentiation of Brucella Live Vaccine Strains from Field Strains

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Brucellosis is a major zoonotic disease responsible for substantial social and economic problems, particularly in the developing world. One element that can implemented as part of control programs tackling animal disease is the use of one of the OIE recommended vaccines to protect against either Bru...

Teaching Teamwork: Electronics Instruction in a Collaborative Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horwitz, Paul; von Davier, Alina; Chamberlain, John; Koon, Al; Andrews, Jessica; McIntyre, Cynthia

2017-01-01

The Teaching Teamwork Project is using an online simulated electronic circuit, running on multiple computers, to assess students' abilities to work together as a team. We pose problems that must be tackled collaboratively, and log students' actions as they attempt to solve them. Team members are isolated from one another and can communicate only…

Tackling drug and alcohol misuse in Brazil: priorities and challenges for nurses.

PubMed

Rassool, G H; Villar-Luis, M

2004-12-01

To provide an overview of the extent of drug and alcohol misuse in Brazil and the policies and approaches in tackling substance misuse. An examination of the challenges facing the nursing profession in working with substance misusers is presented. Alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis are the most commonly misused psychoactive substances in Brazil. One of the biggest public health problems is the interface between the misuse of psychoactive substances and HIV prevalence and other sexually transmitted diseases. Findings from a recent study suggest that undergraduate nurses in Brazil are not adequately prepared in the care and management of substance misuse problems. The nursing profession in Brazil faces numerous challenges in the development of professional competence of nurses in this field. A strategy proposed is the creation of regional centres in Brazil to study the integration of substance use and misuse in the nursing undergraduate curriculum and the giving of specific support in teaching and research to nurse teachers. Nurses have a key role to play in the early recognition, assessment, prevention, and treatment of substance misuse.

Depth-color fusion strategy for 3-D scene modeling with Kinect.

PubMed

Camplani, Massimo; Mantecon, Tomas; Salgado, Luis

2013-12-01

Low-cost depth cameras, such as Microsoft Kinect, have completely changed the world of human-computer interaction through controller-free gaming applications. Depth data provided by the Kinect sensor presents several noise-related problems that have to be tackled to improve the accuracy of the depth data, thus obtaining more reliable game control platforms and broadening its applicability. In this paper, we present a depth-color fusion strategy for 3-D modeling of indoor scenes with Kinect. Accurate depth and color models of the background elements are iteratively built, and used to detect moving objects in the scene. Kinect depth data is processed with an innovative adaptive joint-bilateral filter that efficiently combines depth and color by analyzing an edge-uncertainty map and the detected foreground regions. Results show that the proposed approach efficiently tackles main Kinect data problems: distance-dependent depth maps, spatial noise, and temporal random fluctuations are dramatically reduced; objects depth boundaries are refined, and nonmeasured depth pixels are interpolated. Moreover, a robust depth and color background model and accurate moving objects silhouette are generated.

Tackling Complex Emergency Response Solutions Evaluation Problems in Sustainable Development by Fuzzy Group Decision Making Approaches with Considering Decision Hesitancy and Prioritization among Assessing Criteria.

PubMed

Qi, Xiao-Wen; Zhang, Jun-Ling; Zhao, Shu-Ping; Liang, Chang-Yong

2017-10-02

In order to be prepared against potential balance-breaking risks affecting economic development, more and more countries have recognized emergency response solutions evaluation (ERSE) as an indispensable activity in their governance of sustainable development. Traditional multiple criteria group decision making (MCGDM) approaches to ERSE have been facing simultaneous challenging characteristics of decision hesitancy and prioritization relations among assessing criteria, due to the complexity in practical ERSE problems. Therefore, aiming at the special type of ERSE problems that hold the two characteristics, we investigate effective MCGDM approaches by hiring interval-valued dual hesitant fuzzy set (IVDHFS) to comprehensively depict decision hesitancy. To exploit decision information embedded in prioritization relations among criteria, we firstly define an fuzzy entropy measure for IVDHFS so that its derivative decision models can avoid potential information distortion in models based on classic IVDHFS distance measures with subjective supplementing mechanism; further, based on defined entropy measure, we develop two fundamental prioritized operators for IVDHFS by extending Yager's prioritized operators. Furthermore, on the strength of above methods, we construct two hesitant fuzzy MCGDM approaches to tackle complex scenarios with or without known weights for decision makers, respectively. Finally, case studies have been conducted to show effectiveness and practicality of our proposed approaches.

Advantages of Task-Specific Multi-Objective Optimisation in Evolutionary Robotics.

PubMed

Trianni, Vito; López-Ibáñez, Manuel

2015-01-01

The application of multi-objective optimisation to evolutionary robotics is receiving increasing attention. A survey of the literature reveals the different possibilities it offers to improve the automatic design of efficient and adaptive robotic systems, and points to the successful demonstrations available for both task-specific and task-agnostic approaches (i.e., with or without reference to the specific design problem to be tackled). However, the advantages of multi-objective approaches over single-objective ones have not been clearly spelled out and experimentally demonstrated. This paper fills this gap for task-specific approaches: starting from well-known results in multi-objective optimisation, we discuss how to tackle commonly recognised problems in evolutionary robotics. In particular, we show that multi-objective optimisation (i) allows evolving a more varied set of behaviours by exploring multiple trade-offs of the objectives to optimise, (ii) supports the evolution of the desired behaviour through the introduction of objectives as proxies, (iii) avoids the premature convergence to local optima possibly introduced by multi-component fitness functions, and (iv) solves the bootstrap problem exploiting ancillary objectives to guide evolution in the early phases. We present an experimental demonstration of these benefits in three different case studies: maze navigation in a single robot domain, flocking in a swarm robotics context, and a strictly collaborative task in collective robotics.

Integrating concept ontology and multitask learning to achieve more effective classifier training for multilevel image annotation.

PubMed

Fan, Jianping; Gao, Yuli; Luo, Hangzai

2008-03-01

In this paper, we have developed a new scheme for achieving multilevel annotations of large-scale images automatically. To achieve more sufficient representation of various visual properties of the images, both the global visual features and the local visual features are extracted for image content representation. To tackle the problem of huge intraconcept visual diversity, multiple types of kernels are integrated to characterize the diverse visual similarity relationships between the images more precisely, and a multiple kernel learning algorithm is developed for SVM image classifier training. To address the problem of huge interconcept visual similarity, a novel multitask learning algorithm is developed to learn the correlated classifiers for the sibling image concepts under the same parent concept and enhance their discrimination and adaptation power significantly. To tackle the problem of huge intraconcept visual diversity for the image concepts at the higher levels of the concept ontology, a novel hierarchical boosting algorithm is developed to learn their ensemble classifiers hierarchically. In order to assist users on selecting more effective hypotheses for image classifier training, we have developed a novel hyperbolic framework for large-scale image visualization and interactive hypotheses assessment. Our experiments on large-scale image collections have also obtained very positive results.

Tackling Complex Emergency Response Solutions Evaluation Problems in Sustainable Development by Fuzzy Group Decision Making Approaches with Considering Decision Hesitancy and Prioritization among Assessing Criteria

PubMed Central

Qi, Xiao-Wen; Zhang, Jun-Ling; Zhao, Shu-Ping; Liang, Chang-Yong

2017-01-01

In order to be prepared against potential balance-breaking risks affecting economic development, more and more countries have recognized emergency response solutions evaluation (ERSE) as an indispensable activity in their governance of sustainable development. Traditional multiple criteria group decision making (MCGDM) approaches to ERSE have been facing simultaneous challenging characteristics of decision hesitancy and prioritization relations among assessing criteria, due to the complexity in practical ERSE problems. Therefore, aiming at the special type of ERSE problems that hold the two characteristics, we investigate effective MCGDM approaches by hiring interval-valued dual hesitant fuzzy set (IVDHFS) to comprehensively depict decision hesitancy. To exploit decision information embedded in prioritization relations among criteria, we firstly define an fuzzy entropy measure for IVDHFS so that its derivative decision models can avoid potential information distortion in models based on classic IVDHFS distance measures with subjective supplementing mechanism; further, based on defined entropy measure, we develop two fundamental prioritized operators for IVDHFS by extending Yager’s prioritized operators. Furthermore, on the strength of above methods, we construct two hesitant fuzzy MCGDM approaches to tackle complex scenarios with or without known weights for decision makers, respectively. Finally, case studies have been conducted to show effectiveness and practicality of our proposed approaches. PMID:28974045

Factors influencing tackle injuries in rugby union football

PubMed Central

Garraway, W. M.; Lee, A. J.; Macleod, D. A.; Telfer, J. W.; Deary, I. J.; Murray, G. D.

1999-01-01

OBJECTIVES: To assess the influence of selected aspects of lifestyle, personality, and other player related factors on injuries in the tackle. To describe the detailed circumstances in which these tackles occurred. METHODS: A prospective case-control study was undertaken in which the tackling and tackled players ("the cases") involved in a tackle injury were each matched with "control" players who held the same respective playing positions in the opposing teams. A total of 964 rugby matches involving 71 senior clubs drawn from all districts of the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) were observed by nominated linkmen who administered self report questionnaires to the players identified as cases and controls. Information on lifestyle habits, match preparation, training, and coaching experience was obtained. A validated battery of psychological tests assessed players' trait anger and responses to anger and hostility. The circumstances of the tackles in which injury occurred were recorded by experienced SRU coaching staff in interviews with involved players after the match. RESULTS: A total of 71 tackle injury episodes with correct matching of cases and controls were studied. The following player related factors did not contribute significantly to tackle injuries: alcohol consumption before the match, feeling "below par" through minor illness, the extent of match preparation, previous coaching, or practising tackling. Injured and non- injured players in the tackle did not differ in their disposition toward, or expression of, anger or hostility. Some 85% of tackling players who were injured were three quarters, and 52% of injuries occurred when the tackle came in behind the tackled player or within his peripheral vision. Either the tackling or tackled player was sprinting or running in all of these injury episodes. One third of injuries occurred in differential speed tackles--that is, when one player was travelling much faster than the other at impact. The player with the lower momentum was injured in 80% of these cases. Forceful or crunching tackles resulting in injury mostly occurred head on or within the tackled player's side vision. CONCLUSIONS: Attention should be focused on high speed tackles going in behind the tackled player's line of vision. Comparative information on the circumstances of the vast majority of tackles in which no injury occurs is required before any changes are considered to reduce injuries in the tackle. 


 PMID:10027056

Optimization Model for Capacity Management and Bed Scheduling for Hospital

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sitepu, Suryati; Mawengkang, Herman; Husein, Ismail

2018-01-01

Hospital is a very important institution to provide health care for people. It is not surprising that nowadays the people’s demands for hospital is increasing.. However, due to the rising cost of healthcare services, hospitals need to consider efficiencies in order to overcome these two problems. This paper deals with an integrated strategy of staff capacity management and bed allocation planning to tackle these problems. Mathematically, the strategy can be modeled as an integer linear programming problem. We solve the model using a direct neighborhood search approach, based on the notion of superbasic variables.

Advancements in medicine from aerospace research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wooten, F. T.

1971-01-01

NASA has taken the lead in implementing the concept of technology utilization, and the Technology Utilization Program is the first vital step in the goal of a technological society to insure maximum benefit from the costs of technology. Experience has shown that the active approach to technology transfer is unique and is well received in the medical profession when appropriate problems are tackled. The problem solving approach is a useful one at the precise time when medicine is recognizing the need for new technology.

New activities at the U.S. Geological Survey

USGS Publications Warehouse

McKelvey, Vincent E.

1974-01-01

As the Nation's principal source of information about the configuration of the land surface, the composition and structure of the rocks at and beneath the surface, the distribution and character of its energy, mineral, and water resources, and the nature of natural geologic processes, the U. S. Geological Survey focuses its work on some of the Nation's most critical problems. As the Survey tackles new problems with new techniques, it is fully aware of the resource needs and environmental pressures of an expanding economy and growing population.

The Empirical Study on the Labor Export of Three Gorges Reservoir Area in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Bangyong

There are many large surplus labor force in the three gorges reservoir area, export of labor services is one way to tackle the problem of employment of the surplus-labor and increase farmers income, export of labor is also a effective way to solve three rural issues. This paper analyzes the need for the development of service economy, study the problems of export of labor services, at last the author give some suggestion to develop labor economy.

The persistent problem of lead poisoning in birds from ammunition and fishing tackle

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haig, Susan M.; D'Elia, Jesse; Eagles-Smith, Collin A.; Fair, Jeanne M.; Gervais, Jennifer; Herring, Garth; Rivers, James W.; Schulz, John H.

2014-01-01

Lead (Pb) is a metabolic poison that can negatively influence biological processes, leading to illness and mortality across a large spectrum of North American avifauna (>120 species) and other organisms. Pb poisoning can result from numerous sources, including ingestion of bullet fragments and shot pellets left in animal carcasses, spent ammunition left in the field, lost fishing tackle, Pb-based paints, large-scale mining, and Pb smelting activities. Although Pb shot has been banned for waterfowl hunting in the United States (since 1991) and Canada (since 1999), Pb exposure remains a problem for many avian species. Despite a large body of scientific literature on exposure to Pb and its toxicological effects on birds, controversy still exists regarding its impacts at a population level. We explore these issues and highlight areas in need of investigation: (1) variation in sensitivity to Pb exposure among bird species; (2) spatial extent and sources of Pb contamination in habitats in relation to bird exposure in those same locations; and (3) interactions between avian Pb exposure and other landscape-level stressors that synergistically affect bird demography. We explore multiple paths taken to reduce Pb exposure in birds that (1) recognize common ground among a range of affected interests; (2) have been applied at local to national scales; and (3) engage governmental agencies, interest groups, and professional societies to communicate the impacts of Pb ammunition and fishing tackle, and to describe approaches for reducing their availability to birds. As they have in previous times, users of fish and wildlife will play a key role in resolving the Pb poisoning issue.

Waste collection in developing countries - Tackling occupational safety and health hazards at their source

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

Bleck, Daniela, E-mail: bleck.daniela@baua.bund.de; Wettberg, Wieland, E-mail: wettberg.wieland@baua.bund.de

2012-11-15

Waste management procedures in developing countries are associated with occupational safety and health risks. Gastro-intestinal infections, respiratory and skin diseases as well as muscular-skeletal problems and cutting injuries are commonly found among waste workers around the globe. In order to find efficient, sustainable solutions to reduce occupational risks of waste workers, a methodological risk assessment has to be performed and counteractive measures have to be developed according to an internationally acknowledged hierarchy. From a case study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia suggestions for the transferral of collected household waste into roadside containers are given. With construction of ramps to dump collectedmore » household waste straight into roadside containers and an adaptation of pushcarts and collection procedures, the risk is tackled at the source.« less

Progress in combating cigarette smuggling: controlling the supply chain.

PubMed

Joossens, L; Raw, M

2008-12-01

The illicit tobacco trade results in huge losses of revenue to governments, estimated at $US40-50 billion in 2006, and in increased consumption and thus health problems because it makes tobacco available more cheaply. On 20 October 2008 the second meeting of the International Negotiating Body (INB2) on the illicit trade protocol of WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will discuss measures to tackle the illicit trade in tobacco products. This paper presents the experience over the last decade of three countries, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, which shows that tobacco smuggling can be successfully tackled. The evidence strongly suggests that the key to controlling smuggling is controlling the supply chain, and that the supply chain is controlled to a great extent by the tobacco industry.

The hospital microbiome project: meeting report for the UK science and innovation network UK-USA workshop ‘beating the superbugs: hospital microbiome studies for tackling antimicrobial resistance’, October 14th 2013

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

The UK Science and Innovation Network UK-USA workshop ‘Beating the Superbugs: Hospital Microbiome Studies for tackling Antimicrobial Resistance’ was held on October 14th 2013 at the UK Department of Health, London. The workshop was designed to promote US-UK collaboration on hospital microbiome studies to add a new facet to our collective understanding of antimicrobial resistance. The assembled researchers debated the importance of the hospital microbial community in transmission of disease and as a reservoir for antimicrobial resistance genes, and discussed methodologies, hypotheses, and priorities. A number of complementary approaches were explored, although the importance of the built environment microbiome in disease transmission was not universally accepted. Current whole genome epidemiological methods are being pioneered in the UK and the benefits of moving to community analysis are not necessarily obvious to the pioneers; however, rapid progress in other areas of microbiology suggest to some researchers that hospital microbiome studies will be exceptionally fruitful even in the short term. Collaborative studies will recombine different strengths to tackle the international problems of antimicrobial resistance and hospital and healthcare associated infections.

Generalist solutions to complex problems: generating practice-based evidence - the example of managing multi-morbidity

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background A growing proportion of people are living with long term conditions. The majority have more than one. Dealing with multi-morbidity is a complex problem for health systems: for those designing and implementing healthcare as well as for those providing the evidence informing practice. Yet the concept of multi-morbidity (the presence of >2 diseases) is a product of the design of health care systems which define health care need on the basis of disease status. So does the solution lie in an alternative model of healthcare? Discussion Strengthening generalist practice has been proposed as part of the solution to tackling multi-morbidity. Generalism is a professional philosophy of practice, deeply known to many practitioners, and described as expertise in whole person medicine. But generalism lacks the evidence base needed by policy makers and planners to support service redesign. The challenge is to fill this practice-research gap in order to critically explore if and when generalist care offers a robust alternative to management of this complex problem. We need practice-based evidence to fill this gap. By recognising generalist practice as a ‘complex intervention’ (intervening in a complex system), we outline an approach to evaluate impact using action-research principles. We highlight the implications for those who both commission and undertake research in order to tackle this problem. Summary Answers to the complex problem of multi-morbidity won’t come from doing more of the same. We need to change systems of care, and so the systems for generating evidence to support that care. This paper contributes to that work through outlining a process for generating practice-based evidence of generalist solutions to the complex problem of person-centred care for people with multi-morbidity. PMID:23919296

Matrix analysis and risk management to avert depression and suicide among workers

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Suicide is among the most tragic outcomes of all mental disorders, and the prevalence of suicide has risen dramatically during the last decade, particularly among workers. This paper reviews and proposes strategies to avert suicide and depression with regard to the mind body medicine equation hypothesis, metrics analysis of mental health problems from a public health and clinical medicine view. In occupational fields, the mind body medicine hypothesis has to deal with working environment, working condition, and workers' health. These three factors chosen in this paper were based on the concept of risk control, called San-kanri, which has traditionally been used in Japanese companies, and the causation concepts of host, agent, and environment. Working environment and working condition were given special focus with regard to tackling suicide problems. Matrix analysis was conducted by dividing the problem of working conditions into nine cells: three prevention levels (primary, secondary, and tertiary) were proposed for each of the three factors of the mind body medicine hypothesis (working environment, working condition, and workers' health). After using these main strategies (mind body medicine analysis and matrix analysis) to tackle suicide problems, the paper talks about the versatility of case-method teaching, "Hiyari-Hat activity," routine inspections by professionals, risk assessment analysis, and mandatory health check-up focusing on sleep and depression. In the risk assessment analysis, an exact assessment model was suggested using a formula based on multiplication of the following three factors: (1) severity, (2) frequency, and (3) possibility. Mental health problems, including suicide, are rather tricky to deal with because they involve evaluation of individual cases. The mind body medicine hypothesis and matrix analysis would be appropriate tactics for suicide prevention because they would help the evaluation of this issue as a tangible problem. PMID:21054837

Generalist solutions to complex problems: generating practice-based evidence--the example of managing multi-morbidity.

PubMed

Reeve, Joanne; Blakeman, Tom; Freeman, George K; Green, Larry A; James, Paul A; Lucassen, Peter; Martin, Carmel M; Sturmberg, Joachim P; van Weel, Chris

2013-08-07

A growing proportion of people are living with long term conditions. The majority have more than one. Dealing with multi-morbidity is a complex problem for health systems: for those designing and implementing healthcare as well as for those providing the evidence informing practice. Yet the concept of multi-morbidity (the presence of >2 diseases) is a product of the design of health care systems which define health care need on the basis of disease status. So does the solution lie in an alternative model of healthcare? Strengthening generalist practice has been proposed as part of the solution to tackling multi-morbidity. Generalism is a professional philosophy of practice, deeply known to many practitioners, and described as expertise in whole person medicine. But generalism lacks the evidence base needed by policy makers and planners to support service redesign. The challenge is to fill this practice-research gap in order to critically explore if and when generalist care offers a robust alternative to management of this complex problem. We need practice-based evidence to fill this gap. By recognising generalist practice as a 'complex intervention' (intervening in a complex system), we outline an approach to evaluate impact using action-research principles. We highlight the implications for those who both commission and undertake research in order to tackle this problem. Answers to the complex problem of multi-morbidity won't come from doing more of the same. We need to change systems of care, and so the systems for generating evidence to support that care. This paper contributes to that work through outlining a process for generating practice-based evidence of generalist solutions to the complex problem of person-centred care for people with multi-morbidity.

Non-sanctioning of illegal tackles in South African youth community rugby.

PubMed

Brown, J C; Boucher, S J; Lambert, M; Viljoen, W; Readhead, C; Hendricks, S; Kraak, W J

2018-06-01

The tackle event in rugby union ('rugby') contributes to the majority of players' injuries. Referees can reduce this risk by sanctioning dangerous tackles. A study in elite adult rugby suggests that referees only sanction a minority of illegal tackles. The aim of this study was to assess if this finding was similar in youth community rugby. Observational study. Using EncodePro, 99 South African Rugby Union U18 Youth Week tournament matches were coded between 2011 and 2015. All tackles were coded by a researcher and an international referee to ensure that laws were interpreted correctly. The inter- and intra-rater reliabilities were 0.97-1.00. A regression analysis compared the non-sanctioned rates over time. In total, 12 216 tackles were coded, of which less than 1% (n=113) were 'illegal'. The majority of the 113 illegal tackles were front-on (75%), high tackles (72%) and occurred in the 2nd/4th quarters (29% each). Of the illegal tackles, only 59% were sanctioned. The proportions of illegal tackles and sanctioning of these illegal tackles to all tackles improved by 0.2% per year from 2011-2015 (p<0.05). In these youth community rugby players, 59% of illegal tackles were not sanctioned appropriately. This was better than a previous study in elite adult rugby, where only 7% of illegal tackles were penalised. Moreover, the rates of illegal tackles and non-sanctioned illegal tackles both improved over time. However, it is critical that referees consistently enforce all laws to enhance injury prevention efforts. Further studies should investigate the reasons for non-sanctioning. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Investigation and modeling of Al3(Sc, Zr) precipitation strengthening in the presence of enhanced supersaturation and within Al-Cu binary alloys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deane, Kyle

Diffuse Al-Sc and Al-Zr alloys have been demonstrated in literature to be relatively coarsening resistant at higher temperatures when compared with commonly used precipitation strengthening alloys (e.g. 2000 series, 6000 series). However, because of a limited strengthening due to the low solubility of scandium and zirconium in aluminum, and owing to the scarcity and therefore sizeable price tag attached to scandium, little research has been done in the way of optimizing these alloys for commercial applications. With this in mind, this dissertation describes research which aims to tackle several important areas of Al-Sc-Zr research that have been yet unresolved. In Chapter 4, rapid solidification was utilized to enhance the achievable supersaturation of the alloy in an effort to increase the achievable precipitate strengthening. In Chapter 5, Additive Friction Stir processing (AFS), a novel method of mechanically combining materials without melting, was employed in an attempt to pass the benefits of supersaturation from melt spun ribbon into a more structurally useful bulk material. In Chapter 6, a Matlab program written to predict precipitate nucleation, growth, and coarsening with a modified Kampmann and Wagner Numerical (KWN) model, was used to predict heat treatment regimens for more efficient strengthening. Those predictions were then tested experimentally to test the validity of the results. And lastly, in Chapter 7, the effect of zirconium on Al-Cu secondary precipitates was studied in an attempt to increase their thermal stability, as much higher phase fractions of Al-Cu precipitates are achievable than Al-Zr precipitates.

From Evidence to Policy: The Scottish National Naloxone Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McAuley, Andrew; Best, David; Taylor, Avril; Hunter, Carole; Robertson, Roy

2012-01-01

Drug-related death (DRD) is a major public health problem globally, with rates in Scotland higher than any other UK region and among the highest in Europe. One of the most important public health interventions to emerge aimed at tackling rising DRD rates is the distribution of naloxone, the opioid antagonist, for peer administration. The Scottish…

Mechanisms of Transfer: Modeling Motivational and Self-Regulatory Processes That Promote Transfer of Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, John A.

2012-01-01

A critical goal of many school and training interventions is to provide learners with the strategies and foundational knowledge that will allow them to tackle novel problems encountered under circumstances different than the learning situations. This is also quite often referred to as the ability to transfer learning. Theories of transfer posit…

How School Counselors Could Benefit from E-Government Solutions: The Case of Paperwork.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sabella, Russell A.

The U.S. government has tackled many problems which have plagued its effectiveness and efficiency to serve its citizens with technology solutions. Electronic government, or e-Government, is the expression used to describe how the U.S. government attempts to increase productivity and reduce costs by using Internet-based technology. More…

Solar Electricity Generation: Issues of Development and Impact on ICT Implementation in Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Damasen, Ikwaba Paul

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine and discuss, in-depth, how solar electricity can be developed and used to tackle grid electricity-related problems in African countries suffering from unreliable and inadequate grid electricity. Design/methodology/approach: The paper discusses in depth the current status of grid electricity in…

Differentiated Function of School in Socio-Culturally Disadvantaged Context: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study from Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caliskan, Zuhal Zeybekoglu; Simsek, Hasan; Kondakci, Yasar

2017-01-01

This study analyses the functioning of a school as a social system in an atypical context with the purpose of generating propositions to tackle educational problems confronted by socially and economically disadvantaged groups attending these schools. Adopting the constructivist grounded theory, the analysis suggests that there is a kind of…

An Accessible, Structured Approach for Building the Intuitive Habit of Evidential Thinking before the Examination Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aiken, Anna

2017-01-01

Anna Aiken and her history colleagues had been reflecting on the stubborn problem of students failing to tackle GCSE questions about sources with adequate thought or understanding of evidence. Teaching them the typical requirements of the GCSE examination even appeared to make things worse, encouraging superficiality and failing to bring about…

Possible Solutions for Financial Crises of the Private Sector of Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolling, Landrum R.

Our society is at a point where a number of interlocking crises-inflation, ever rising expectations, war, urban problems, youth's discontent-are coming together. Money is needed at every point and the private college cannot rely on the federal government or private sources to save them from financial disaster. The private college can tackle its…

Multivariate mixed linear model analysis of longitudinal data: an information-rich statistical technique for analyzing disease resistance data

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The mixed linear model (MLM) is currently among the most advanced and flexible statistical modeling techniques and its use in tackling problems in plant pathology has begun surfacing in the literature. The longitudinal MLM is a multivariate extension that handles repeatedly measured data, such as r...

Automating "Word of Mouth" to Recommend Classes to Students: An Application of Social Information Filtering Algorithms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Booker, Queen Esther

2009-01-01

An approach used to tackle the problem of helping online students find the classes they want and need is a filtering technique called "social information filtering," a general approach to personalized information filtering. Social information filtering essentially automates the process of "word-of-mouth" recommendations: items are recommended to a…

Pilot Program Aims High: Challenges en Route Help District Find Success in Measuring Impact

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Celeste, Eric

2017-01-01

Denver Public Schools' Professional Learning Center was still relatively new when it decided to tackle a problem of practice that has vexed systems and departments across the country: How to measure the impact of professional learning. To do so, the Professional Learning Center created a new comprehensive measurement approach--one that would…

Does Virtual Team Composition Matter? Trait and Problem-Solving Configuration Effects on Team Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turel, Ofir; Zhang, Yi

2010-01-01

Due to the increased importance and usage of self-managed virtual teams, many recent studies have examined factors that affect their success. One such factor that merits examination is the configuration or composition of virtual teams. This article tackles this point by (1) empirically testing trait-configuration effects on virtual team…

Why We Need Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coates, Nathan

2005-01-01

Nathan Coates, a high school teacher, describes the necessity of comedy in classrooms and also offers many points of discussion for approaching Neil Simon's play. Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers", which has won the Tony Award for the best play and the Pulitzer Award, both in 1991, tackles the toughest problems with the delicacy of a…

Ornithologists by Design: Kindergarteners Design, Construct, and Evaluate Bird Feeders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shorter, Angela; Segers, Marcia

2016-01-01

How can an engineer design a bird feeder that attracts many birds? This question resulted from kindergarten students' observations of the bird feeders in their school's bird sanctuary. The challenging question is the heart of project-based learning (PBL), a teaching strategy in which students tackle real-world problems and design projects to solve…

Psychological Empowerment among Urban Youth: Measure Development and Relationship to Psychosocial Functioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozer, Emily J.; Schotland, Marieka

2011-01-01

Although there are an increasing number of youth development programs that aim to empower young people, there is a dearth of psychometrically sound measures that can be used to assess flexible youth-led organizing and participatory research approaches that tackle a wide range of social and community problems. This study developed and tested…

What part can nurses play in the prevention of suicide?

PubMed

Glasper, Alan

Professor Alan Glasper discusses the new goverment initiative which aims to tackle the number of suicides ocurring in the UK. There are many different reasons people choose to take their own lives and it is important that nurses have a good understanding and awareness of these in order to contribute to the reduction of the problem.

Using Regular, Lowstakes Tests to Secure Pupils' Contextual Knowledge in Year 10

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donaghy, Lee

2014-01-01

Lee Donaghy was concerned that his GCSE students' weak contextual knowledge was letting them down. Inspired by a mixture of cognitive science and the arguments of other teachers expressed in various blogs, he decided to tackle the problem by teaching and testing knowledge more intensively. The result was a rapid improvement in secure factual…

Gamification for Non-Majors Mathematics: An Innovative Assignment Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leong, Siow Hoo; Tang, Howe Eng

2017-01-01

The most important ingredient of the pedagogy for teaching non-majors is getting their engagement. This paper proposes to use gamification to engage non-majors. An innovative game termed as Cover the Hungarian's Zeros is designed to tackle the common weakness of non-majors mathematics in solving the assignment problem using the Hungarian Method.…

A Fuzzy Group Decision Making Model for Ordinal Peer Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capuano, Nicola; Loia, Vincenzo; Orciuoli, Francesco

2017-01-01

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming an increasingly popular choice for education but, to reach their full extent, they require the resolution of new issues like assessing students at scale. A feasible approach to tackle this problem is peer assessment, in which students also play the role of assessor for assignments submitted by…

Tackling Obesity in Children through Physical Activity: A Perspective from the United Kingdom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Kenneth R.

2004-01-01

Childhood obesity has become an emotive and serious problem in Europe. In the UK, it has generated a great deal of interest by the media, health professionals, food companies, scientists, and more recently, the government. Upward trends have been recorded in most countries, levels are interestingly variable, and the origins of this variation have…

"Infotectives" on the "Infobahn": Designing Internet-Aided Projects for the Social Studies Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maskin, Melvin R.

1996-01-01

Describes three social studies projects tackled by students at the Bronx High School of Science: an extracredit activity on doing business in Manhattan, a citizen-participation project on fixing the United States, and a cooperative activity to identify problems common to Tokyo and New York City. Using the Internet to solve real-world problems…

The Library Manager's Deskbook: 102 Expert Solutions to 101 Common Dilemmas.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carson, Paula Phillips; And Others

This is a handbook of advice for handling the everyday problems encountered in all types and sizes of libraries. It is designed to assist managers before, during, and after crises develop. Organized in an question-and-answer format, it tackles many dilemmas that can occur in the library, then offers solutions drawn from actual experience. The…

Features and Historical Aspects of the Philippines Educational System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Musa, Sajid; Ziatdinov, Rushan

2012-01-01

This article deals with the features of the Philippine educational system. Additionally, brief and concise information will be given on how the educational system came into existence, the organization and the structure of the system itself. This paper also tackles the obstacles and problems observed in the past and up to the present, and gives…

The Fiscal Year 1993 Bush Budget: Still Not Tackling the Nation's Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenstein, Robert; Leonard, Paul A.

On January 29, 1992, the Bush Administration unveiled its fiscal year 1993 budget. An examination of the budget reveals a substantial gap between the administration's rhetoric concerning the budget and what the budget actually contains. An analysis reveals a budget that continues to give priority to defense over domestic spending, one that favors…

Creating a Transformational Learning Experience: Immersing Students in an Intensive Interdisciplinary Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Shelley K.; Nitkin, Mindell Reiss

2014-01-01

The Simmons World Challenge is a unique, interdisciplinary program recently developed at Simmons College. It immerses students in an intensive winter-session course that challenges them to tackle a pressing social issue, such as poverty or hunger, and create actionable solutions to the problem. The program was conceived and designed to harness the…

Xerostomia and medications among 32-year-olds

PubMed Central

THOMSON, WILLIAM MURRAY; POULTON, RICHIE; BROADBENT, JONATHAN MARK; AL-KUBAISY, SHAIMA

2008-01-01

Objective To describe the prevalence and associations of xerostomia among adults in their early thirties, with particular attention to medication exposure as a putative risk factor. Material and Methods The prevalence and associations of xerostomia were investigated among 32-year-old participants in a long-standing prospective cohort study. Some 950 individuals were assessed at ages 26 and 32 years, with medications being recorded on both occasions. Results The prevalence of xerostomia was 10.0% (with no apparent gender difference), and was significantly higher among those taking antidepressants (odds ratio =4.7), iron supplements (OR =4.1) or narcotic analgesics (OR =2.4). Those taking antidepressants at both ages 26 and 32 years had 22 times the odds of reporting xerostomia. Conclusion Xerostomia may be a problem for a sizeable minority of young adults. PMID:16829502

Tackle mechanisms and match characteristics in women's elite football tournaments.

PubMed

Tscholl, P; O'Riordan, D; Fuller, C W; Dvorak, J; Junge, A

2007-08-01

Several tools have been used for assessing risk situations and for gathering tackle information from international football matches for men but not for women. To analyse activities in women's football and to identify the characteristics and risk potentials of tackles. Retrospective video analysis. Video recordings of 24 representative matches from six women's top-level tournaments were analysed for tackle parameters and their risk potential. 3531 tackles were recorded. Tackles in which the tackling player came from the side and stayed on her feet accounted for nearly half of all challenges for the ball in which body contact occurred. 2.7% of all tackles were classified as risk situations, with sliding-in tackles from behind and the side having the highest risk potential. Match referees sanctioned sliding-in tackles more often than other tackles (20% v 17%, respectively). Tackle parameters did not change in the duration of a match; however, there was an increase in the number of injury risk situations and foul plays towards the end of each half. Match properties provide valuable information for a better understanding of injury situations in football. Staying on feet and jumping vertically tackle actions leading to injury were sanctioned significantly more times by the referee than those not leading to injury (p<0.001), but no such difference was seen for sliding-in tackles (previously reported to have the highest injury potential in women's football). Therefore, either the laws of the game are not adequate or match referees in women's football are not able to distinguish between sliding-in tackles leading to and those not leading to injury.

Tackle and impact detection in elite Australian football using wearable microsensor technology.

PubMed

Gastin, Paul B; McLean, Owen C; Breed, Ray V P; Spittle, Michael

2014-01-01

The effectiveness of a wearable microsensor device (MinimaxX(TM) S4, Catapult Innovations, Melbourne, VIC, Australia) to automatically detect tackles and impact events in elite Australian football (AF) was assessed during four matches. Video observation was used as the criterion measure. A total of 352 tackles were observed, with 78% correctly detected as tackles by the manufacturer's software. Tackles against (i.e. tackled by an opponent) were more accurately detected than tackles made (90% v 66%). Of the 77 tackles that were not detected at all, the majority (74%) were categorised as low-intensity. In contrast, a total of 1510 "tackle" events were detected, with only 18% of these verified as tackles. A further 57% were from contested ball situations involving player contact. The remaining 25% were in general play where no contact was evident; these were significantly lower in peak Player Load™ than those involving player contact (P < 0.01). The tackle detection algorithm, developed primarily for rugby, was not suitable for tackle detection in AF. The underlying sensor data may have the potential to detect a range of events within contact sports such as AF, yet to do so is a complex task and requires sophisticated sport and event-specific algorithms.

Progress in combating cigarette smuggling: controlling the supply chain

PubMed Central

Joossens, L; Raw, M

2008-01-01

Background: The illicit tobacco trade results in huge losses of revenue to governments, estimated at $US40–50 billion in 2006, and in increased consumption and thus health problems because it makes tobacco available more cheaply. On 20 October 2008 the second meeting of the International Negotiating Body (INB2) on the illicit trade protocol of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will discuss measures to tackle the illicit trade in tobacco products. Methods: This paper presents the experience over the last decade of three countries, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, which shows that tobacco smuggling can be successfully tackled. Conclusion: The evidence strongly suggests that the key to controlling smuggling is controlling the supply chain, and that the supply chain is controlled to a great extent by the tobacco industry. PMID:18784154

Design of an H.264/SVC resilient watermarking scheme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Caenegem, Robrecht; Dooms, Ann; Barbarien, Joeri; Schelkens, Peter

2010-01-01

The rapid dissemination of media technologies has lead to an increase of unauthorized copying and distribution of digital media. Digital watermarking, i.e. embedding information in the multimedia signal in a robust and imperceptible manner, can tackle this problem. Recently, there has been a huge growth in the number of different terminals and connections that can be used to consume multimedia. To tackle the resulting distribution challenges, scalable coding is often employed. Scalable coding allows the adaptation of a single bit-stream to varying terminal and transmission characteristics. As a result of this evolution, watermarking techniques that are robust against scalable compression become essential in order to control illegal copying. In this paper, a watermarking technique resilient against scalable video compression using the state-of-the-art H.264/SVC codec is therefore proposed and evaluated.

Ada Dual-Use Summary: Ada Dual-Use Workshop Held in Vienna, Virginia on October 19-20, 1993. Ada Dual-Use Committee Briefing, November 8, 1993

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-11-29

Certification: Initial Continuing Fund Experimentatlonal Research: Same Design , Implement In Ada, C, C++ Same Problem, Develop With Multiple Methodologies ...allowing analysts ( non programmers) to ’parit’ specifications for screens, reports, databases and etc 2) generating from design specifications 75% of...before the non -defense sector did and designed a tool to tackle the problem. DOD tested the tool and it worked. But DOD hasn’t put Ada to work in a

Immunosensor development formatting for tungro disease detection using nano-gold antibody particles application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uda, M. N. A.; Hasfalina, C. M.; Samsuzanaa, A. A.; Faridah, S.; Zamri, I.; Noraini, B. Siti; Sabrina, W. Nur; Hashim, U.; Gopinath, Subash C. B.

2017-03-01

The plant disease such as Rice tungro disease (RTD) becomes a major problem in rice production and also will effect in the economy loss in the country. Therefore, to tackle this problem at early stages, the immunosensor application is a most reliable sensor nowadays because of advantages towards detecting biological molecule. Thus, in order to deal with immunosensor development, it can be done by undergoing the formation of immunosensor format on screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE). Results can be elaborated with the potential applications to detect the viruses.

Black Holes, Information Loss and the Measurement Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okon, Elias; Sudarsky, Daniel

2017-01-01

The information loss paradox is often presented as an unavoidable consequence of well-established physics. However, in order for a genuine paradox to ensue, not-trivial assumptions about, e.g., quantum effects on spacetime, are necessary. In this work we will be explicit about these additional, speculative assumptions required. We will also sketch a map of the available routes to tackle the issue, highlighting the, often overlooked, commitments demanded of each alternative. Finally, we will display the strong link between black holes, the issue of information loss and the measurement problem.

Algebraic techniques for diagonalization of a split quaternion matrix in split quaternionic mechanics

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

Jiang, Tongsong, E-mail: jiangtongsong@sina.com; Department of Mathematics, Heze University, Heze, Shandong 274015; Jiang, Ziwu

In the study of the relation between complexified classical and non-Hermitian quantum mechanics, physicists found that there are links to quaternionic and split quaternionic mechanics, and this leads to the possibility of employing algebraic techniques of split quaternions to tackle some problems in complexified classical and quantum mechanics. This paper, by means of real representation of a split quaternion matrix, studies the problem of diagonalization of a split quaternion matrix and gives algebraic techniques for diagonalization of split quaternion matrices in split quaternionic mechanics.

Device-Independent Tests of Classical and Quantum Dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallego, Rodrigo; Brunner, Nicolas; Hadley, Christopher; Acín, Antonio

2010-12-01

We address the problem of testing the dimensionality of classical and quantum systems in a “black-box” scenario. We develop a general formalism for tackling this problem. This allows us to derive lower bounds on the classical dimension necessary to reproduce given measurement data. Furthermore, we generalize the concept of quantum dimension witnesses to arbitrary quantum systems, allowing one to place a lower bound on the Hilbert space dimension necessary to reproduce certain data. Illustrating these ideas, we provide simple examples of classical and quantum dimension witnesses.

Advantages of Task-Specific Multi-Objective Optimisation in Evolutionary Robotics

PubMed Central

Trianni, Vito; López-Ibáñez, Manuel

2015-01-01

The application of multi-objective optimisation to evolutionary robotics is receiving increasing attention. A survey of the literature reveals the different possibilities it offers to improve the automatic design of efficient and adaptive robotic systems, and points to the successful demonstrations available for both task-specific and task-agnostic approaches (i.e., with or without reference to the specific design problem to be tackled). However, the advantages of multi-objective approaches over single-objective ones have not been clearly spelled out and experimentally demonstrated. This paper fills this gap for task-specific approaches: starting from well-known results in multi-objective optimisation, we discuss how to tackle commonly recognised problems in evolutionary robotics. In particular, we show that multi-objective optimisation (i) allows evolving a more varied set of behaviours by exploring multiple trade-offs of the objectives to optimise, (ii) supports the evolution of the desired behaviour through the introduction of objectives as proxies, (iii) avoids the premature convergence to local optima possibly introduced by multi-component fitness functions, and (iv) solves the bootstrap problem exploiting ancillary objectives to guide evolution in the early phases. We present an experimental demonstration of these benefits in three different case studies: maze navigation in a single robot domain, flocking in a swarm robotics context, and a strictly collaborative task in collective robotics. PMID:26295151

Realizing drug repositioning by adapting a recommendation system to handle the process.

PubMed

Ozsoy, Makbule Guclin; Özyer, Tansel; Polat, Faruk; Alhajj, Reda

2018-04-12

Drug repositioning is the process of identifying new targets for known drugs. It can be used to overcome problems associated with traditional drug discovery by adapting existing drugs to treat new discovered diseases. Thus, it may reduce associated risk, cost and time required to identify and verify new drugs. Nowadays, drug repositioning has received more attention from industry and academia. To tackle this problem, researchers have applied many different computational methods and have used various features of drugs and diseases. In this study, we contribute to the ongoing research efforts by combining multiple features, namely chemical structures, protein interactions and side-effects to predict new indications of target drugs. To achieve our target, we realize drug repositioning as a recommendation process and this leads to a new perspective in tackling the problem. The utilized recommendation method is based on Pareto dominance and collaborative filtering. It can also integrate multiple data-sources and multiple features. For the computation part, we applied several settings and we compared their performance. Evaluation results show that the proposed method can achieve more concentrated predictions with high precision, where nearly half of the predictions are true. Compared to other state of the art methods described in the literature, the proposed method is better at making right predictions by having higher precision. The reported results demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of recommendation methods for drug repositioning.

Tackler’s head position relative to the ball carrier is highly correlated with head and neck injuries in rugby

PubMed Central

Hasegawa, Yoshinori; Shiota, Yuki; Ota, Chihiro; Yoneda, Takeshi; Tahara, Shigeyuki; Maki, Nobukazu; Matsuura, Takahiro; Sekiguchi, Masahiro; Itoigawa, Yoshiaki; Tateishi, Tomohiko; Kaneko, Kazuo

2018-01-01

Objectives To characterise the tackler’s head position during one-on-one tackling in rugby and to determine the incidence of head, neck and shoulder injuries through analysis of game videos, injury records and a questionnaire completed by the tacklers themselves. Methods We randomly selected 28 game videos featuring two university teams in competitions held in 2015 and 2016. Tackles were categorised according to tackler’s head position. The ‘pre-contact phase’ was defined; its duration and the number of steps taken by the ball carrier prior to a tackle were evaluated. Results In total, 3970 tackles, including 317 (8.0%) with the tackler’s head incorrectly positioned (ie, in front of the ball carrier) were examined. Thirty-two head, neck or shoulder injuries occurred for an injury incidence of 0.8% (32/3970). The incidence of injury in tackles with incorrect head positioning was 69.4/1000 tackles; the injury incidence with correct head positioning (ie, behind or to one side of the ball carrier) was 2.7/1000 tackles. Concussions, neck injuries, ‘stingers’ and nasal fractures occurred significantly more often during tackles with incorrect head positioning than during tackles with correct head positioning. Significantly fewer steps were taken before tackles with incorrect head positioning that resulted in injury than before tackles that did not result in injury. Conclusion Tackling with incorrect head position relative to the ball carrier resulted in a significantly higher incidence of concussions, neck injuries, stingers and nasal fractures than tackling with correct head position. Tackles with shorter duration and distance before contact resulted in more injuries. PMID:29162618

Tackle characteristics and injury in a cross section of rugby union football.

PubMed

McIntosh, Andrew S; Savage, Trevor N; McCrory, Paul; Fréchède, Bertrand O; Wolfe, Rory

2010-05-01

The tackle is the game event in rugby union most associated with injury. This study's main aims were to measure tackle characteristics from video using a qualitative protocol, to assess whether the characteristics differed by level of play, and to measure the associations between tackle characteristics and injury. A cohort study was undertaken. The cohort comprised male rugby players in the following levels: younger than 15 yr, 18 yr, and 20 yr, grade, and elite (Super 12 and Wallabies). All tackle events and technique characteristics were coded in 77 game halves using a standardized qualitative protocol. Game injuries and missed-game injuries were identified and correlated with tackle events. A total of 6618 tackle events, including 81 resulting in a game injury, were observed and coded in the 77 game halves fully analyzed (145 tackle events per hour). An increase in the proportion of active shoulder tackles was observed from younger than 15 yr (13%) to elite (31%). Younger players engaged in more passive tackles and tended to stay on their feet more than experienced players. Younger than 15 yr rugby players had a significantly lower risk of tackle game injury compared with elite players. No specific tackle technique was observed to be associated with a significantly increased risk of game injury. There was a greater risk of game injury associated with two or more tacklers involved in the tackle event, and the greatest risk was associated with simultaneous contact by tacklers, after adjusting for level of play. Tackle characteristics differed between levels of play. The number of tacklers and the sequence of tackler contact with the ball carrier require consideration from an injury prevention perspective.

West Europe Report, No. 2174.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-07-15

shown itself incapable of tackling the problem of public assistance spending. The study from the CESPE social research section, which we are presenting...been able to influence important Riksdag decisions on more than one occasion. Within historical and social science research , Swedish communism has...Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. Correspondence pertaining to matters other than procurement may be addressed to Joint Publications Research

Tackling the Anglophones' Free Ride: Fair Linguistic Cooperation with a Global Lingua Franca

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Parijs, Philippe

2007-01-01

In science and in all other domains that require communication across borders, we need one lingua franca, and this lingua franca will be English. The adoption of the native language of some as everyone's lingua franca unavoidably raises a problem of justice in various senses. One of these is cooperative justice, the fair distribution of the cost…

Scaffolding Students' Skill Development by First Introducing Advanced Techniques through the Synthesis and [superscript 15]N NMR Analysis of Cinnamamides

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shuldburg, Sara; Carroll, Jennifer

2017-01-01

An advanced undergraduate experiment involving the synthesis and characterization of a series of six unique cinnamamides is described. This experiment allows for a progressive mastery of skills students need to tackle more complex NMR structure elucidation problems. Characterization of the products involves IR spectroscopy, GCMS, and proton,…

"The Only Problem Is, Children Will Like Their Chips": Education and the Discursive Production of Ill-Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, John; Evans, Bethan; Rich, Emma

2003-01-01

On 16 January 2002, the United Kingdom House of Commons Select Committee published a report entitled "Tackling Obesity in England". Drawing on insights from the work of Bernstein, Bourdieu and Foucault, this article will suggest that the report provides an example "par excellence" of the way in which "the body" (our…

Improving the Nation's Health. Step One: Reduce Toxic Stress in Early Childhood. Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Louv, Richard

2006-01-01

To reduce risk factors for adult disease in our society, we must tackle the problem of toxic stress in early childhood. This condition is associated with the excessive release of a stream of hormones whose persistent elevation can disrupt the wiring of the developing brain and the functioning of the immune system. Children who experience toxic…

Using the AHP in a Workshop Setting to Elicit and Prioritize Fire Research Needs

Treesearch

Daniel L. Schmoldt; David L. Peterson

1997-01-01

The benefits of convening a group of knowledgeable specialists together in a workshop setting to tackle a difficult problem can often be offset by an over-abundance of unfocused and rambling discussion and by counterproductive group dynamics. In light of this workshop paradox, we have created a generic workshop framework based on the analytic hierarchy process, that...

A Review of New Labour's Policy on School Exclusion: The Political Challenge of School Disaffection in England

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reed, Jodie

2003-01-01

Shortly after coming to power, Tony Blair's New Labour government expressed its strong commitment to tackling the problem of school expulsion. The Treasury's 1998 Spending Review included the bold target to achieve "a reduction by one third in... exclusions (from 12,500 to 8,400 permanent exclusions a year) by 2002". This article gives…

Going beyond Equations with Disciplinary Thinking in First-Year Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Syed, M. Qasim

2015-01-01

Students in first-year physics courses generally focus on hunting for suitable equations and formulas when tackling a variety of physical situations and physics problems. There is a need for a framework that can guide them to disciplinary ways of thinking and help them begin to think like physicists. To serve this end, in this study, a framework…

Squashing the Millennium Bug: A Year 2000 Compliance Guide for Elementary/Secondary Schools and School Districts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Root, Mark; Carlson, Robert; Dexter, David; Karinch, Samantha; Kaplan, Heather

This guide was developed to assist the nation's elementary and secondary schools and school districts address their Year 2000 (Y2K) problem. The guide is divided into three sections: Squashing the Millennium Bug Step-by-Step; Remediating Specific Types of Systems; and Appendix. The first chapter presents the following steps for tackling the Year…

Words and Pictures: An Electrophysiological Investigation of Domain Specific Processing in Native Chinese and English Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yum, Yen Na; Holcomb, Phillip J.; Grainger, Jonathan

2011-01-01

Comparisons of word and picture processing using event-related potentials (ERPs) are contaminated by gross physical differences between the two types of stimuli. In the present study, we tackle this problem by comparing picture processing with word processing in an alphabetic and a logographic script, that are also characterized by gross physical…

Towards a Re-Conceptualization of Teachers' Self-Efficacy Beliefs: Tackling Enduring Problems with the Quantitative Research and Moving On

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyatt, Mark

2014-01-01

Various commentators have argued for years that the study of teachers' self-efficacy (TSE) beliefs, largely dominated by quantitative research methodologies, has been confused. Contentious issues include the very conceptualization of these beliefs, how they are defined and accessed through research and how the research is used. One of the…

Experimental Evaluations of Two Strategies to Improve Reading Achievement in Kenya: Enhanced Literacy Instruction and Treatment of Malaria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jukes, Matthew; Dubeck, Margaret; Brooker, Simon; Wolf, Sharon

2012-01-01

There is less quality evidence on how malaria may affect cognitive abilities and educational achievement or on how schools can tackle the problem of malaria among school children. A randomised trial among Sri Lankan children showed that weekly malaria chemoprophylaxis with chloroquine can improve school examination scores. The Health and Literacy…

Perspectives on Tolerance in Education Flowing from a Comparison of Religion Education in Mexico and Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potgieter, Ferdinand J.

2013-01-01

This paper investigates religion education (RE) in Mexico and Thailand -- two countries from different parts of the world with vastly different populations and cultures. We wanted to learn whether they had tackled similar problems regarding the provision of RE in their schools, particularly with respect to the matter of tolerance in diverse…

Perspectives on Tolerance in Education Flowing from a Comparison of Religion Education in Estonia and South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Walt, Johannes L.

2013-01-01

The question that prompted this investigation into religion education (RE) in Estonia and in South Africa was whether two countries from such totally different parts of the world, with such vastly different populations and cultures though with somewhat parallel histories, had tackled the same or similar problems regarding the provision of RE in…

How to Motivate Adults with Low Literacy and Numeracy Skills to Engage and Persist in Learning: A Literature Review of Policy Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Windisch, Hendrickje Catriona

2016-01-01

Low basic skills levels of adults are a complex policy problem which has neither straightforward causes nor solutions, and successful interventions are still relatively rare. Tackling serious literacy and numeracy weaknesses among adults is challenging, partly because the task itself is difficult, and partly because even if accomplished…

Strategies to Reduce Racially Disparate Outcomes in Child Welfare: A National Scan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Oronde; Esenstad, Amelia

2015-01-01

This report documents the efforts underway in 12 states and localities to tackle the enduring problem of African American, Native American, and Latino families faring worse than others being served by the child welfare systems. The publication, produced by Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) as part of the work of the Alliance for Racial…

Using VCL as an Aspect-Oriented Approach to Requirements Modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amálio, Nuno; Kelsen, Pierre; Ma, Qin; Glodt, Christian

Software systems are becoming larger and more complex. By tackling the modularisation of crosscutting concerns, aspect orientation draws attention to modularity as a means to address the problems of scalability, complexity and evolution in software systems development. Aspect-oriented modelling (AOM) applies aspect-orientation to the construction of models. Most existing AOM approaches are designed without a formal semantics, and use multi-view partial descriptions of behaviour. This paper presents an AOM approach based on the Visual Contract Language (VCL): a visual language for abstract and precise modelling, designed with a formal semantics, and comprising a novel approach to visual behavioural modelling based on design by contract where behavioural descriptions are total. By applying VCL to a large case study of a car-crash crisis management system, the paper demonstrates how modularity of VCL's constructs, at different levels of granularity, help to tackle complexity. In particular, it shows how VCL's package construct and its associated composition mechanisms are key in supporting separation of concerns, coarse-grained problem decomposition and aspect-orientation. The case study's modelling solution has a clear and well-defined modular structure; the backbone of this structure is a collection of packages encapsulating local solutions to concerns.

The airport gate assignment problem: a survey.

PubMed

Bouras, Abdelghani; Ghaleb, Mageed A; Suryahatmaja, Umar S; Salem, Ahmed M

2014-01-01

The airport gate assignment problem (AGAP) is one of the most important problems operations managers face daily. Many researches have been done to solve this problem and tackle its complexity. The objective of the task is assigning each flight (aircraft) to an available gate while maximizing both conveniences to passengers and the operational efficiency of airport. This objective requires a solution that provides the ability to change and update the gate assignment data on a real time basis. In this paper, we survey the state of the art of these problems and the various methods to obtain the solution. Our survey covers both theoretical and real AGAP with the description of mathematical formulations and resolution methods such as exact algorithms, heuristic algorithms, and metaheuristic algorithms. We also provide a research trend that can inspire researchers about new problems in this area.

The Airport Gate Assignment Problem: A Survey

PubMed Central

Ghaleb, Mageed A.; Salem, Ahmed M.

2014-01-01

The airport gate assignment problem (AGAP) is one of the most important problems operations managers face daily. Many researches have been done to solve this problem and tackle its complexity. The objective of the task is assigning each flight (aircraft) to an available gate while maximizing both conveniences to passengers and the operational efficiency of airport. This objective requires a solution that provides the ability to change and update the gate assignment data on a real time basis. In this paper, we survey the state of the art of these problems and the various methods to obtain the solution. Our survey covers both theoretical and real AGAP with the description of mathematical formulations and resolution methods such as exact algorithms, heuristic algorithms, and metaheuristic algorithms. We also provide a research trend that can inspire researchers about new problems in this area. PMID:25506074

46 CFR 184.300 - Ground tackle and mooring lines.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Ground tackle and mooring lines. 184.300 Section 184.300... Ground tackle and mooring lines. A vessel must be fitted with ground tackle and mooring lines necessary for the vessel to be safely anchored or moored. The ground tackle and mooring lines provided must be...

46 CFR 184.300 - Ground tackle and mooring lines.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 46 Shipping 7 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Ground tackle and mooring lines. 184.300 Section 184.300... Ground tackle and mooring lines. A vessel must be fitted with ground tackle and mooring lines necessary for the vessel to be safely anchored or moored. The ground tackle and mooring lines provided must be...

Can biological homochirality result from a phase transition?

PubMed

Figureau, A; Duval, E; Boukenter, A

1995-06-01

The problem of chiral purity in living organisms is still one of the prominent difficulties in the study of the origins of life. In particular the parity non-conservation known to occur in weak interactions could not be related to this lack of symmetry: these physical forces, though universal, are very weak and up to now no amplification process had been proposed. In 1991, A. Salam remarked that, due to the attractive character of the parity violating force in electro-weak interactions, a phase transition at low temperature should exist, leading eventually to enantiomeric purity. We undertook then a series of experimental tests, looking for a sizeable change in the optical activity of cystine molecules. We found no evidence for the phase transition down to 0.01 K. The interpretation of these negative results will be discussed, and future experiments proposed.

The effectiveness of social marketing interventions for health improvement: what's the evidence?

PubMed

Gordon, Ross; McDermott, Laura; Stead, Martine; Angus, Kathryn

2006-12-01

To review the effectiveness of social marketing interventions designed to improve diet, increase physical activity, and tackle substance misuse. This article describes three reviews of systematic reviews and primary studies that evaluate social marketing effectiveness. All three reviews used pre-defined search and inclusion criteria and defined social marketing interventions as those which adopted six key social marketing principles. The reviews provide evidence that social marketing interventions can be effective in improving diet, increasing exercise, and tackling the misuse of substances like alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs. There is evidence that social marketing interventions can work with a range of target groups, in different settings, and can work upstream as well as with individuals. Social marketing provides a very promising framework for improving health both at the individual level and at wider environmental and policy-levels. Problems with research design, lack of conceptual understanding or implementation are valid research concerns.

Adoption of multivariate copulae in prognostication of economic growth by means of interest rate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saputra, Dewi Tanasia; Indratno, Sapto Wahyu, Dr.

2015-12-01

Inflation, at a healthy rate, is a sign of growing economy. Nonetheless, when inflation rate grows uncontrollably, it will negatively influence economic growth. Many tackle this problem by increasing interest rate to help protecting the value of money which is detained by inflation. There are few, however, who study the effects of interest rate in economic growth. The main purposes of this paper are to find how the change of interest rate affects economic growth and to use the relationship in prognostication of economic growth. By using expenditure model, a linear relationship between economic growth and interest rate is developed. The result is then used for prediction by normal copula and Vine Archimedean copula. It is shown that increasing interest rate to tackle inflation is a poor solution. Whereas implementation of copula in predicting economic growth yields an accurate result, with not more than 0.5% difference.

Robust optimization based energy dispatch in smart grids considering demand uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nassourou, M.; Puig, V.; Blesa, J.

2017-01-01

In this study we discuss the application of robust optimization to the problem of economic energy dispatch in smart grids. Robust optimization based MPC strategies for tackling uncertain load demands are developed. Unexpected additive disturbances are modelled by defining an affine dependence between the control inputs and the uncertain load demands. The developed strategies were applied to a hybrid power system connected to an electrical power grid. Furthermore, to demonstrate the superiority of the standard Economic MPC over the MPC tracking, a comparison (e.g average daily cost) between the standard MPC tracking, the standard Economic MPC, and the integration of both in one-layer and two-layer approaches was carried out. The goal of this research is to design a controller based on Economic MPC strategies, that tackles uncertainties, in order to minimise economic costs and guarantee service reliability of the system.

Control of corruption in healthcare.

PubMed

Ahmed, Armin; Azim, Afzal

2015-01-01

A recently published article on corruption in Indian healthcare in the BMJ has triggered a hot debate and numerous responses (1, 2, 3, 4). We do agree that corruption in Indian healthcare is a colossal issue and needs to be tackled urgently (5). However, we want to highlight that corruption in healthcare is not a local phenomenon confined to the Indian subcontinent, though India does serve as a good case study and intervention area due to the magnitude of the problem and the country's large population (6). Good governance, strict rules, transparency and zero tolerance are some of the strategies prescribed everywhere to tackle corruption. However, those entrusted with implementing good governance and strict rules in India need to go through a process of introspection to carry out their duties in a responsible fashion. At present, it looks like a no-win situation. In this article, we recommend education in medical ethics as the major intervention for dealing with corruption in healthcare.

Training young scientists across empirical and modeling approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, D. J.

2014-12-01

The "fluxcourse," is a two-week program of study on Flux Measurements and Advanced Modeling (www.fluxcourse.org). Since 2007, this course has trained early career scientists to use both empirical observations and models to tackle terrestrial ecological questions. The fluxcourse seeks to cross train young scientists in measurement techniques and advanced modeling approaches for quantifying carbon and water fluxes between the atmosphere and the biosphere. We invited between ten and twenty volunteer instructors depending on the year ranging in experience and expertise, including representatives from industry, university professors and research specialists. The course combines online learning, lecture and discussion with hands on activities that range from measuring photosynthesis and installing an eddy covariance system to wrangling data and carrying out modeling experiments. Attendees are asked to develop and present two different group projects throughout the course. The overall goal is provide the next generation of scientists with the tools to tackle complex problems that require collaboration.

Quantitative nanoscopy: Tackling sampling limitations in (S)TEM imaging of polymers and composites.

PubMed

Gnanasekaran, Karthikeyan; Snel, Roderick; de With, Gijsbertus; Friedrich, Heiner

2016-01-01

Sampling limitations in electron microscopy questions whether the analysis of a bulk material is representative, especially while analyzing hierarchical morphologies that extend over multiple length scales. We tackled this problem by automatically acquiring a large series of partially overlapping (S)TEM images with sufficient resolution, subsequently stitched together to generate a large-area map using an in-house developed acquisition toolbox (TU/e Acquisition ToolBox) and stitching module (TU/e Stitcher). In addition, we show that quantitative image analysis of the large scale maps provides representative information that can be related to the synthesis and process conditions of hierarchical materials, which moves electron microscopy analysis towards becoming a bulk characterization tool. We demonstrate the power of such an analysis by examining two different multi-phase materials that are structured over multiple length scales. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Moral Panic? The Problematization of Forced Marriage in British Newspapers.

PubMed

Anitha, Sundari; Gill, Aisha K

2015-09-01

This article examines the British media's construction of forced marriage (FM) as an urgent social problem in a context where other forms of violence against women are not similarly problematized. A detailed analysis of four British newspapers over a 10-year period demonstrates that media reporting of FM constitutes a moral panic in that it is constructed as a cultural problem that threatens Britain's social order rather than as a specific form of violence against women. Thus, the current problematization of FM restricts discursive spaces for policy debates and hinders attempts to respond to this problem as part of broader efforts to tackle violence against women. © The Author(s) 2015.

Elucidating Reaction Mechanisms on Quantum Computers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiebe, Nathan; Reiher, Markus; Svore, Krysta; Wecker, Dave; Troyer, Matthias

We show how a quantum computer can be employed to elucidate reaction mechanisms in complex chemical systems, using the open problem of biological nitrogen fixation in nitrogenase as an example. We discuss how quantum computers can augment classical-computer simulations for such problems, to significantly increase their accuracy and enable hitherto intractable simulations. Detailed resource estimates show that, even when taking into account the substantial overhead of quantum error correction, and the need to compile into discrete gate sets, the necessary computations can be performed in reasonable time on small quantum computers. This demonstrates that quantum computers will realistically be able to tackle important problems in chemistry that are both scientifically and economically significant.

Tackling the child malnutrition problem: from what and why to how much and how.

PubMed

McLachlan, Milla

2006-12-01

There is strong economic evidence to invest in improving the economic status of young children, yet programs remain underresourced. Returns on investment in child nutrition in terms of improved health, better education outcomes and increased productivity are substantial, and cost estimates for effective programs are in the range of $2.8 to $5.3 billion. These amounts are modest when compared with total international development assistance or current spending on luxury goods in wealthy nations. New initiatives to redefine nutrition science and to apply innovative problem-solving technologies to the global nutrition problem suggest that steps are being taken to accelerate progress toward a malnutrition-free world.

High School Pupils' Understanding of Peer Counselling and Willingness to Use it for Different Types of Bullying

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boulton, Michael John

2014-01-01

Bullying affects a substantial proportion of school pupils, and peer counselling services have been established to help tackle this problem. The present study aimed to further the understanding of why affected pupils do or do not choose to utilise this form of social support. Pupils ("N" = 99, aged 12-16 years) from the UK were asked…

Opening Doors to Student Success: A Synthesis of Findings from an Evaluation at Six Community Colleges. Policy Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scrivener, Susan; Coghlan, Erin

2011-01-01

Only one-third of all students who enter community colleges with the intent to earn a degree or certificate actually meet this goal within six years. MDRC launched the Opening Doors Demonstration in 2003--the first large-scale random assignment study in a community college setting--to tackle this problem. Partnering with six community colleges,…

A unified approach to VLSI layout automation and algorithm mapping on processor arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkateswaran, N.; Pattabiraman, S.; Srinivasan, Vinoo N.

1993-01-01

Development of software tools for designing supercomputing systems is highly complex and cost ineffective. To tackle this a special purpose PAcube silicon compiler which integrates different design levels from cell to processor arrays has been proposed. As a part of this, we present in this paper a novel methodology which unifies the problems of Layout Automation and Algorithm Mapping.

Paying Less for College: 1993. The Complete Guide to $28 Billion in Financial Aid. Tenth Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson's Guides, Inc., Princeton, NJ.

This book on financial aid for college education is designed to be a guide to sources and an aid to the process of obtaining financial assistance. An introductory essay titled "The Twenty Most-Asked Questions About Financial Aid" gives a basic orientation on the issues and expert advice on how to tackle the problems of filling out forms,…

Deaths from Pesticide Poisoning: Are we lacking a global response?

PubMed Central

Bertolote, JM; Fleischmann, A; Eddleston, M; Gunnell, D

2008-01-01

Self-poisoning with pesticides accounts for around a third of all suicides worldwide. To tackle this problem, WHO announced a Global Public Health initiative in 2005. Planned approaches will range from Government regulatory action to the development of new treatments for pesticide poisoning. With broad-based support this strategy will have a major impact on the global burden of suicide. PMID:16946353

Papers Presented at the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Academic Education in Computer Science [held in Houston, Texas, November 16, 1970].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aiken, Robert M., Ed.

1970-01-01

The papers given at this symposium were selected for their description of how specific problems were tackled, and with what success, as opposed to proposals unsupported by experience. The goal was to permit the audience to profit from the trials (and errors) of others. The eighteen papers presented are: "Business and the University Computer…

A Case Study of Introducing Innovation Through Design

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-01

contacts, freeing more of their mental energy to assist the CO in developing and tackling the overall complexities of the mission. With more energy ...organizations experiencing change while design thinking is devoted to finding solutions to difficult problems by harnessing the creative energy inherent...change. “Rather than focusing on one major opportunity, [embedded actors] pepper the landscape with many cultivated opportunities.”53 (2) Fitting the

Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-01

tackle the country’s corruption problem. The KRG recently issued a white paper outlining elements of a new strategy for good gover - nance, in part to...Iraq. The State Board of Tourism (SBT) hosted several tourist groups during this reporting 16 January 29, 2010 period. This year Iraq will...coordi- nated tours for the first American tourism company, Advantage Travel and Tours. Additionally, 27 signed investment licenses totaling $2

Enthusiasm, Relevance and Creativity: Could These Teaching Qualities Stop Us Alienating Pupils from Science?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Sarah; Ireson, Gren; Twidle, John

2010-01-01

The poor attitude of pupils towards science continues to be a topic of concern within secondary schools. This article considers research and highlights what we can learn as teachers to persevere in tackling the problem. Alongside this review, a case study was undertaken with a sample of year 7 pupils (ages 11-12) in English schools who reported…

Why Do Chinese Postgraduates Struggle with Critical Thinking? Some Clues from the Higher Education Curriculum in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Tao

2017-01-01

There has been a good deal of research into the problems Chinese postgraduate students studying in English-speaking universities face with regard to critical thinking. This project is an attempt to tackle this issue from a new perspective. It aims to explore how a unique aspect of the university curriculum in China--the so-called "four…

Promoting healthy diets and tackling obesity and diet-related chronic diseases: what are the agricultural policy levers?

PubMed

Hawkes, Corinna

2007-06-01

Diet-related chronic diseases are now a serious global public health problem. Public health groups are calling for the agricultural sector to play a greater role in tackling the threat. To identify potential points of policy intervention in the agricultural sector that could be leveraged to promote healthy diets and tackle obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. A review of the literature on the dietary implications of agriculture, a conceptual analysis of the issues, and the identification of relevant examples. There are two main potential points of intervention in the agricultural sector that could be leveraged to promote healthy diets: agricultural policies and agricultural production practices. Agricultural policies and practices affect diet through their influence on food availability, price, and nutrient quality, which in turn affects food choices available to consumers. Agricultural policies amenable to intervention include input, production, and trade policies; agricultural production practices amenable to intervention include crop breeding, crop fertilization practices, livestock-feeding practices, and crop systems diversity. It is well-known that agricultural policies and production practices influence what farmers choose to grow. Agricultural policies and production practices could also play a role in influencing what consumers choose to eat. To identify how agricultural policies and practices can usefully contribute toward promoting healthy diets and tackling obesity and diet-related chronic diseases, health policymakers need to examine whether current agricultural policies and production practices are contributing to-or detracting from-efforts to attain dietary goals; where and how could agricultural intervention help achieve dietary goals; and whether there are trade-offs between these interventions and other important concerns, such as undernutrition and the livelihoods of agricultural producers. Given the potential of agriculture to contribute to large-scale, population-level dietary improvements, these questions warrant closer attention from health policymakers.

Replacing textbook problems with lab experiences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Register, Trevor

2017-10-01

End-of-the-chapter textbook problems are often the bread and butter of any traditional physics classroom. However, research strongly suggests that students be given the opportunity to apply their knowledge in multiple contexts as well as be provided with opportunities to do the process of science through laboratory experiences. Little correlation has been shown linking the number of textbook problems solved with conceptual understanding of topics in mechanics. Furthermore, textbook problems as the primary source of practice for students robs them of the joy and productive struggle of learning how to think like an experimental physicist. Methods such as Modeling Instruction tackle this problem head-on by starting each instructional unit with an inquiry-based lab aimed at establishing the important concepts and equations for the unit, and this article will discuss ideas and experiences for how to carry that philosophy throughout a unit.

Stochastic Local Search for Core Membership Checking in Hedonic Games

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keinänen, Helena

Hedonic games have emerged as an important tool in economics and show promise as a useful formalism to model multi-agent coalition formation in AI as well as group formation in social networks. We consider a coNP-complete problem of core membership checking in hedonic coalition formation games. No previous algorithms to tackle the problem have been presented. In this work, we overcome this by developing two stochastic local search algorithms for core membership checking in hedonic games. We demonstrate the usefulness of the algorithms by showing experimentally that they find solutions efficiently, particularly for large agent societies.

The dilemma of BME research projects in developing countries: a case study.

PubMed

Zahedi, Edmond; Attar, Hamid Movahedian

2011-01-01

Researchers are faced with huge challenges when undertaking BME research projects in developing countries. Various administrative, technical, economic and even cultural barriers have to be overcome whereas the quality and quantity of the output has to be comparable with the developed world in order to make results publishable. This paper uses a real project context to highlight the major problems and the necessity of a holistic approach which would take into consideration all stakeholders interests. It is only by tackling problems such as relationship between academia-industry and administration efficiency at their root that significant progress can be achieved.

The coral reefs optimization algorithm: a novel metaheuristic for efficiently solving optimization problems.

PubMed

Salcedo-Sanz, S; Del Ser, J; Landa-Torres, I; Gil-López, S; Portilla-Figueras, J A

2014-01-01

This paper presents a novel bioinspired algorithm to tackle complex optimization problems: the coral reefs optimization (CRO) algorithm. The CRO algorithm artificially simulates a coral reef, where different corals (namely, solutions to the optimization problem considered) grow and reproduce in coral colonies, fighting by choking out other corals for space in the reef. This fight for space, along with the specific characteristics of the corals' reproduction, produces a robust metaheuristic algorithm shown to be powerful for solving hard optimization problems. In this research the CRO algorithm is tested in several continuous and discrete benchmark problems, as well as in practical application scenarios (i.e., optimum mobile network deployment and off-shore wind farm design). The obtained results confirm the excellent performance of the proposed algorithm and open line of research for further application of the algorithm to real-world problems.

The patient-zero problem with noisy observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altarelli, Fabrizio; Braunstein, Alfredo; Dall'Asta, Luca; Ingrosso, Alessandro; Zecchina, Riccardo

2014-10-01

A belief propagation approach has been recently proposed for the patient-zero problem in SIR epidemics. The patient-zero problem consists of finding the initial source of an epidemic outbreak given observations at a later time. In this work, we study a more difficult but related inference problem, in which observations are noisy and there is confusion between observed states. In addition to studying the patient-zero problem, we also tackle the problem of completing and correcting the observations to possibly find undiscovered infected individuals and false test results. Moreover, we devise a set of equations, based on the variational expression of the Bethe free energy, to find the patient-zero along with maximum-likelihood epidemic parameters. We show, by means of simulated epidemics, that this method is able to infer details on the past history of an epidemic outbreak based solely on the topology of the contact network and a single snapshot of partial and noisy observations.

The Coral Reefs Optimization Algorithm: A Novel Metaheuristic for Efficiently Solving Optimization Problems

PubMed Central

Salcedo-Sanz, S.; Del Ser, J.; Landa-Torres, I.; Gil-López, S.; Portilla-Figueras, J. A.

2014-01-01

This paper presents a novel bioinspired algorithm to tackle complex optimization problems: the coral reefs optimization (CRO) algorithm. The CRO algorithm artificially simulates a coral reef, where different corals (namely, solutions to the optimization problem considered) grow and reproduce in coral colonies, fighting by choking out other corals for space in the reef. This fight for space, along with the specific characteristics of the corals' reproduction, produces a robust metaheuristic algorithm shown to be powerful for solving hard optimization problems. In this research the CRO algorithm is tested in several continuous and discrete benchmark problems, as well as in practical application scenarios (i.e., optimum mobile network deployment and off-shore wind farm design). The obtained results confirm the excellent performance of the proposed algorithm and open line of research for further application of the algorithm to real-world problems. PMID:25147860

Application of tabu search to deterministic and stochastic optimization problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurtuna, Ozgur

During the past two decades, advances in computer science and operations research have resulted in many new optimization methods for tackling complex decision-making problems. One such method, tabu search, forms the basis of this thesis. Tabu search is a very versatile optimization heuristic that can be used for solving many different types of optimization problems. Another research area, real options, has also gained considerable momentum during the last two decades. Real options analysis is emerging as a robust and powerful method for tackling decision-making problems under uncertainty. Although the theoretical foundations of real options are well-established and significant progress has been made in the theory side, applications are lagging behind. A strong emphasis on practical applications and a multidisciplinary approach form the basic rationale of this thesis. The fundamental concepts and ideas behind tabu search and real options are investigated in order to provide a concise overview of the theory supporting both of these two fields. This theoretical overview feeds into the design and development of algorithms that are used to solve three different problems. The first problem examined is a deterministic one: finding the optimal servicing tours that minimize energy and/or duration of missions for servicing satellites around Earth's orbit. Due to the nature of the space environment, this problem is modeled as a time-dependent, moving-target optimization problem. Two solution methods are developed: an exhaustive method for smaller problem instances, and a method based on tabu search for larger ones. The second and third problems are related to decision-making under uncertainty. In the second problem, tabu search and real options are investigated together within the context of a stochastic optimization problem: option valuation. By merging tabu search and Monte Carlo simulation, a new method for studying options, Tabu Search Monte Carlo (TSMC) method, is developed. The theoretical underpinnings of the TSMC method and the flow of the algorithm are explained. Its performance is compared to other existing methods for financial option valuation. In the third, and final, problem, TSMC method is used to determine the conditions of feasibility for hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles. There are many uncertainties related to the technologies and markets associated with new generation passenger vehicles. These uncertainties are analyzed in order to determine the conditions in which new generation vehicles can compete with established technologies.

An efficient heuristic method for dynamic portfolio selection problem under transaction costs and uncertain conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Najafi, Amir Abbas; Pourahmadi, Zahra

2016-04-01

Selecting the optimal combination of assets in a portfolio is one of the most important decisions in investment management. As investment is a long term concept, looking into a portfolio optimization problem just in a single period may cause loss of some opportunities that could be exploited in a long term view. Hence, it is tried to extend the problem from single to multi-period model. We include trading costs and uncertain conditions to this model which made it more realistic and complex. Hence, we propose an efficient heuristic method to tackle this problem. The efficiency of the method is examined and compared with the results of the rolling single-period optimization and the buy and hold method which shows the superiority of the proposed method.

Impact of the New Mental Health Services on Rates of Suicide and Hospitalisations by Attempted Suicide, Psychiatric Problems, and Alcohol Problems in Brazil.

PubMed

Machado, Daiane B; Alves, Flávia Jôse; Rasella, Davide; Rodrigues, Laura; Araya, Ricardo

2018-05-01

A sizeable proportion of all suicides have mental health issues in the background. The association between access to mental health care in the community and decreased suicide rates is inconsistent in the literature. Brazil undertook a major psychiatric reform strengthening psychiatric community-based care. To evaluate the impact of the new Brazilian community mental health care units (CAPS-Psychosocial-Community-Centres) on municipal rates of suicide, and hospitalisations by attempted suicide, psychiatric and alcohol problems. We performed robust multivariable negative binomial regression models with fixed effect for panel data from all 5507 Brazilian municipalities. Suicide and hospitalization rates were calculated by sex and standardised by age for each municipality and year from 2008 to 2012. The main variable of interest was municipal CAPS coverage. CAPS municipal coverage was associated with lower suicide rates but this was not statistically significant (RR: 0.981; 95% CI 0.952-1.011). However, increased CAPS coverage was associated with lower hospitalizations for attempted suicide (RR: 0.887; 95% CI 0.841-0.935), psychiatric (RR: 0.841; 95% CI 0.821-0.862), and alcohol problems (RR: 0.882; 95% CI 0.860-0.904). Our results suggest that access to community mental health services seems to reduce hospitalisations due to attempted suicide, psychiatric and alcohol problems but not suicidal rates. Therefore, increased investments in community mental health services in low-middle-income countries might decrease costs associated with potentially avoidable hospitalizations.

Destination: Saving Lives and Providing Hope in Haiti

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

tropical island, are a big problem because of malaria and dengue fever . Those are the things were going to tackle to help alleviate the burden some...includ- ing Comfort, were providing care and disaster relief to the region . This, despite a crucible of war fighting obligations, is an...assistance throughout the region . NAVY MEDICINE22 A blood-curdling scream rings out across the enclosed school yard where Sailors from the multi

Managing obesity in primary care.

PubMed

Goldie, Christine; Brown, Jenny

Obesity is a complex problem and often difficult to tackle in primary care. A year-long pilot of a practice nurse-led scheme that used a holistic approach towards self-care in obesity management was set up to reduce the cardiovascular risk of patients who were obese and improve their quality of life. This person-centred approach may offer an important tool in the management of these patients in the GP surgery.

Overabundance of sika deer and immunocontraception.

PubMed

Noguchi, Junko

2017-02-16

The impact of deer overabundance is a worldwide problem. Along with habitat expansion and population increase, damage by sika deer to the forest ecosystem and agriculture has become a serious issue in Japan. Deer also transmit a number of diseases and parasites to humans and livestock. The overabundance of deer is a result of their strong fecundity, and therefore the present situation should, in theory, be tackled by experts in reproductive biology.

A Definitive Work on Factors Impacting the Arming of Unmanned Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-05-01

making software, which can then adjust the system to compensate for unusual activity. Behavioral models that better predict how applications, networks ... network structure of nodes and arcs. The arcs describe relations between nodes, and nodes represent objects, concepts, or events. It uses the arc...tackling things that occur outside the known problem domain. There are some newer, natural-based approaches. One deals with neural networks . There is no

Trusted Autonomy: Concept Development in Technology Foresight

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-09-01

executing the response . UNCLASSIFIED 19 UNCLASSIFIED DST-Group-TR-3153 UNCLASSIFIED 20 Previous models explored autonomy through the lenses of...w /users to leam to tackle complex problems Robots are able to intanalise and use world models Controllers have multiple modules based on leru.ning...technology across society. It aims to describe usage or uptake, and evolving trends, in technological development over time. Through doing so, it seeks to

Evaluation of Education Programs Developed by the Public and Private Alliance between the Coffee Growers Committee of Caldas and the State Government of Caldas, Colombia. Final Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Audrey-Marie Schuh; Florez, Ana; Grajeda, Eva

2010-01-01

This evaluation of progress in tackling the problems of access, quality, equity and completion of primary and secondary education examines the results of an alliance between the Coffee Growers Committee of Caldas (CGC) and the Department of Caldas, Colombia. The evaluation team employed a retrospective approach to understanding the social,…

Proceedings of the 2002 fire conference: managing fire and fuels in the remaining wildlands and open spaces of the Southwestern United States

Treesearch

Marcia G. Narog

2008-01-01

Many issues confront scientists, land managers, policymakers, and the public who deal with or are affected by management of fire and fuels across the southwestern United States (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and California). The 2002 Fire Conference was convened to tackle these concerns. It began with a plenary session addressing the central problems of...

Strategies of Rural Development in Asia--A Discussion. Summary of Discussion, Research Studies and Country Statements Presented to the Seminar on Approaches to Rural Development in Asia (Malaysia, May-June, 1975).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inayatullah, C., Ed.

A 10-day seminar for senior government officials concerned with making rural development policies in selected Asian countries focused on programs adopted by various Asian governments to tackle rural development problems. To compare various approaches, seven indicators of rural development were used: agricultural productivity; rural employment;…

The Potential Improvement of Team-Working Skills in Biomedical and Natural Science Students Using a Problem-Based Learning Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nowrouzian, Forough L.; Farewell, Anne

2013-01-01

Teamwork has become an integral part of most organisations today, and it is clearly important in Science and other disciplines. In Science, research teams increase in size while the number of single-authored papers and patents decline. Team-work in laboratory sciences permits projects that are too big or complex for one individual to be tackled.…

The politics of partnerships: a study of police and housing collaboration to tackle anti-social behaviour on Australian public housing estates.

PubMed

Jacobs, Keith

2010-01-01

This paper draws on the findings from a research project on partnership arrangements between the police and housing departments on three Australian public housing estates to tackle problems associated with illicit drug activity and anti-social behaviour (ASB). The analysis focused on the setting up of the partnerships and the interactions that followed from these institutional arrangements. The assumption that informs the paper is that when studying partnerships there is a need for a more critically framed analysis. The temptation to posit "a successful model" of what partnership entails and then to judge practices in relation to this model is considerable, but it inevitably falls into the trap of constructing a narrative of partnership success or failure in terms of individual agency (that is, the degree of commitment from individuals). The analysis undertaken in this paper has therefore sought to fathom a more complex set of organizational processes. Rather than confine the discussion to issues of success and failure, the study foregrounds the subjective accounts of individuals who work within partnership and the constraints they encounter. The paper therefore makes explicit the cultural tensions within and across agencies, contestation as to the extent of the policy "problem," and the divergent perspectives on the appropriate modes of intervention.

Adaptive Online Sequential ELM for Concept Drift Tackling

PubMed Central

Basaruddin, Chan

2016-01-01

A machine learning method needs to adapt to over time changes in the environment. Such changes are known as concept drift. In this paper, we propose concept drift tackling method as an enhancement of Online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (OS-ELM) and Constructive Enhancement OS-ELM (CEOS-ELM) by adding adaptive capability for classification and regression problem. The scheme is named as adaptive OS-ELM (AOS-ELM). It is a single classifier scheme that works well to handle real drift, virtual drift, and hybrid drift. The AOS-ELM also works well for sudden drift and recurrent context change type. The scheme is a simple unified method implemented in simple lines of code. We evaluated AOS-ELM on regression and classification problem by using concept drift public data set (SEA and STAGGER) and other public data sets such as MNIST, USPS, and IDS. Experiments show that our method gives higher kappa value compared to the multiclassifier ELM ensemble. Even though AOS-ELM in practice does not need hidden nodes increase, we address some issues related to the increasing of the hidden nodes such as error condition and rank values. We propose taking the rank of the pseudoinverse matrix as an indicator parameter to detect “underfitting” condition. PMID:27594879

The offer network protocol: Mathematical foundations and a roadmap for the development of a global brain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heylighen, Francis

2017-01-01

The world is confronted with a variety of interdependent problems, including scarcity, unsustainability, inequality, pollution and poor governance. Tackling such complex challenges requires coordinated action. The present paper proposes the development of a self-organizing system for coordination, called an "offer network", that would use the distributed intelligence of the Internet to match the offers and needs of all human, technological and natural agents on the planet. This would maximize synergy and thus minimize waste and scarcity of resources. Implementing such coordination requires a protocol that formally defines agents, offers, needs, and the network of condition-action rules or reactions that interconnect them. Matching algorithms can then determine self-sustaining subnetworks in which each consumed resource (need) is also produced (offer). After sketching the elements of a mathematical foundation for offer networks, the paper proposes a roadmap for their practical implementation. This includes step-by-step integration with technologies such as the Semantic Web, ontologies, the Internet of Things, reputation and recommendation systems, reinforcement learning, governance through legal constraints and nudging, and ecosystem modeling. The resulting intelligent platform should be able to tackle nearly all practical and theoretical problems in a bottom-up, distributed manner, thus functioning like a Global Brain for humanity.

Evaluation of the Validity and Reliability of the Waterlow Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment Scale

PubMed Central

Charalambous, Charalambos; Koulori, Agoritsa; Vasilopoulos, Aristidis; Roupa, Zoe

2018-01-01

Introduction Prevention is the ideal strategy to tackle the problem of pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcer risk assessment scales are one of the most pivotal measures applied to tackle the problem, much criticisms has been developed regarding the validity and reliability of these scales. Objective To investigate the validity and reliability of the Waterlow pressure ulcer risk assessment scale. Method The methodology used is a narrative literature review, the bibliography was reviewed through Cinahl, Pubmed, EBSCO, Medline and Google scholar, 26 scientific articles where identified. The articles where chosen due to their direct correlation with the objective under study and their scientific relevance. Results The construct and face validity of the Waterlow appears adequate, but with regards to content validity changes in the category age and gender can be beneficial. The concurrent validity cannot be assessed. The predictive validity of the Waterlow is characterized by high specificity and low sensitivity. The inter-rater reliability has been demonstrated to be inadequate, this may be due to lack of clear definitions within the categories and differentiating level of knowledge between the users. Conclusion Due to the limitations presented regarding the validity and reliability of the Waterlow pressure ulcer risk assessment scale, the scale should be used in conjunction with clinical assessment to provide optimum results. PMID:29736104

Evaluation of the Validity and Reliability of the Waterlow Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment Scale.

PubMed

Charalambous, Charalambos; Koulori, Agoritsa; Vasilopoulos, Aristidis; Roupa, Zoe

2018-04-01

Prevention is the ideal strategy to tackle the problem of pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcer risk assessment scales are one of the most pivotal measures applied to tackle the problem, much criticisms has been developed regarding the validity and reliability of these scales. To investigate the validity and reliability of the Waterlow pressure ulcer risk assessment scale. The methodology used is a narrative literature review, the bibliography was reviewed through Cinahl, Pubmed, EBSCO, Medline and Google scholar, 26 scientific articles where identified. The articles where chosen due to their direct correlation with the objective under study and their scientific relevance. The construct and face validity of the Waterlow appears adequate, but with regards to content validity changes in the category age and gender can be beneficial. The concurrent validity cannot be assessed. The predictive validity of the Waterlow is characterized by high specificity and low sensitivity. The inter-rater reliability has been demonstrated to be inadequate, this may be due to lack of clear definitions within the categories and differentiating level of knowledge between the users. Due to the limitations presented regarding the validity and reliability of the Waterlow pressure ulcer risk assessment scale, the scale should be used in conjunction with clinical assessment to provide optimum results.

Approaches to Interactive Video Anchors in Problem-based Science Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, David Devraj

2010-02-01

This paper is an invited adaptation of the IEEE Education Society Distinguished Lecture Approaches to Interactive Video Anchors in Problem-Based Science Learning. Interactive video anchors have a cognitive theory base, and they help to enlarge the context of learning with information-rich real-world situations. Carefully selected movie clips and custom-developed regular videos and virtual simulations have been successfully used as anchors in problem-based science learning. Examples discussed include a range of situations such as Indiana Jones tackling a trap, a teenager misrepresenting lead for gold, an agriculture inspection at the US border, counterintuitive events, analyzing a river ecosystem for pollution, and finding the cause of illness in a nineteenth century river city. Suggestions for teachers are provided.

Obchs: AN Effective Harmony Search Algorithm with Oppositionbased Chaos-Enhanced Initialization for Solving Uncapacitated Facility Location Problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heidari, A. A.; Kazemizade, O.; Abbaspour, R. A.

2015-12-01

In this paper, a continuous harmony search (HS) approach is investigated for tackling the Uncapacitated Facility Location (UFL) task. This article proposes an efficient modified HS-based optimizer to improve the performance of HS on complex spatial tasks like UFL problems. For this aim, opposition-based learning (OBL) and chaotic patterns are utilized. The proposed technique is examined against several UFL benchmark challenges in specialized literature. Then, the modified HS is substantiated in detail and compared to the basic HS and some other methods. The results showed that new opposition-based chaotic HS (OBCHS) algorithm not only can exploit better solutions competently but it is able to outperform HS in solving UFL problems.

A Joint Optimization Criterion for Blind DS-CDMA Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durán-Díaz, Iván; Cruces-Alvarez, Sergio A.

2006-12-01

This paper addresses the problem of the blind detection of a desired user in an asynchronous DS-CDMA communications system with multipath propagation channels. Starting from the inverse filter criterion introduced by Tugnait and Li in 2001, we propose to tackle the problem in the context of the blind signal extraction methods for ICA. In order to improve the performance of the detector, we present a criterion based on the joint optimization of several higher-order statistics of the outputs. An algorithm that optimizes the proposed criterion is described, and its improved performance and robustness with respect to the near-far problem are corroborated through simulations. Additionally, a simulation using measurements on a real software-radio platform at 5 GHz has also been performed.

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

Dall-Anese, Emiliano; Simonetto, Andrea

This paper focuses on the design of online algorithms based on prediction-correction steps to track the optimal solution of a time-varying constrained problem. Existing prediction-correction methods have been shown to work well for unconstrained convex problems and for settings where obtaining the inverse of the Hessian of the cost function can be computationally affordable. The prediction-correction algorithm proposed in this paper addresses the limitations of existing methods by tackling constrained problems and by designing a first-order prediction step that relies on the Hessian of the cost function (and do not require the computation of its inverse). Analytical results are establishedmore » to quantify the tracking error. Numerical simulations corroborate the analytical results and showcase performance and benefits of the algorithms.« less

Instant preheating in quintessential inflation with α -attractors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dimopoulos, Konstantinos; Wood, Leonora Donaldson; Owen, Charlotte

2018-03-01

We investigate a compelling model of quintessential inflation in the context of α -attractors, which naturally result in a scalar potential featuring two flat regions; the inflationary plateau and the quintessential tail. The "asymptotic freedom" of α -attractors, near the kinetic poles, suppresses radiative corrections and interactions, which would otherwise threaten to lift the flatness of the quintessential tail and cause a 5th-force problem respectively. Since this is a nonoscillatory inflation model, we reheat the Universe through instant preheating. The parameter space is constrained by both inflation and dark energy requirements. We find an excellent correlation between the inflationary observables and model predictions, in agreement with the α -attractors setup. We also obtain successful quintessence for natural values of the parameters. Our model predicts potentially sizeable tensor perturbations (at the level of 1%) and a slightly varying equation of state for dark energy, to be probed in the near future.

Innovating With Rehabilitation Technology in the Real World: Promises, Potentials, and Perspectives.

PubMed

Chua, Karen Sui Geok; Kuah, Christopher Wee Keong

2017-10-01

In this article, we discuss robotic-assisted therapy as an emerging and significant field of clinical rehabilitation and its value proposition for innovating rehabilitation clinical practice. Attempts to achieve integration among clinicians' practices and bioengineers' machines often generate new challenges and controversies. To date, the literature is indicative of a sizeable number and variety of robotic devices in the field of clinical rehabilitation, some are commercially available; however, large-scale clinical outcomes are less positive than expected. The following main themes related to integrating rehabilitation technology in real-world clinical practice will be discussed: the application of current evidence-based practice and knowledge in relation to treatment in the rehabilitation clinic, perspectives from rehabilitation professionals using robotic-aided therapy with regard to challenges, and strategies for problem solving. Lastly, we present innovation philosophies with regard to sustainability of clinical rehabilitation technologies.

Innovating With Rehabilitation Technology in the Real World

PubMed Central

Chua, Karen Sui Geok; Kuah, Christopher Wee Keong

2017-01-01

Abstract In this article, we discuss robotic-assisted therapy as an emerging and significant field of clinical rehabilitation and its value proposition for innovating rehabilitation clinical practice. Attempts to achieve integration among clinicians' practices and bioengineers' machines often generate new challenges and controversies. To date, the literature is indicative of a sizeable number and variety of robotic devices in the field of clinical rehabilitation, some are commercially available; however, large-scale clinical outcomes are less positive than expected. The following main themes related to integrating rehabilitation technology in real-world clinical practice will be discussed: the application of current evidence-based practice and knowledge in relation to treatment in the rehabilitation clinic, perspectives from rehabilitation professionals using robotic-aided therapy with regard to challenges, and strategies for problem solving. Lastly, we present innovation philosophies with regard to sustainability of clinical rehabilitation technologies. PMID:28708632

The Effects of Verbal Instruction and Shaping to Improve Tackling by High School Football Players

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Antonio M.; Pyles, David A.

2013-01-01

We evaluated verbal instruction and shaping using TAG (teaching with acoustical guidance) to improve tackling by 3 high school football players. Verbal instruction and shaping improved tackling for all 3 participants. In addition, performance was maintained as participants moved more quickly through the tackling procedure.

Ecological literacy and beyond: Problem-based learning for future professionals.

PubMed

Lewinsohn, Thomas M; Attayde, José Luiz; Fonseca, Carlos Roberto; Ganade, Gislene; Jorge, Leonardo Ré; Kollmann, Johannes; Overbeck, Gerhard E; Prado, Paulo Inácio; Pillar, Valério D; Popp, Daniela; da Rocha, Pedro L B; Silva, Wesley Rodrigues; Spiekermann, Annette; Weisser, Wolfgang W

2015-03-01

Ecological science contributes to solving a broad range of environmental problems. However, lack of ecological literacy in practice often limits application of this knowledge. In this paper, we highlight a critical but often overlooked demand on ecological literacy: to enable professionals of various careers to apply scientific knowledge when faced with environmental problems. Current university courses on ecology often fail to persuade students that ecological science provides important tools for environmental problem solving. We propose problem-based learning to improve the understanding of ecological science and its usefulness for real-world environmental issues that professionals in careers as diverse as engineering, public health, architecture, social sciences, or management will address. Courses should set clear learning objectives for cognitive skills they expect students to acquire. Thus, professionals in different fields will be enabled to improve environmental decision-making processes and to participate effectively in multidisciplinary work groups charged with tackling environmental issues.

Segmented-memory recurrent neural networks.

PubMed

Chen, Jinmiao; Chaudhari, Narendra S

2009-08-01

Conventional recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have difficulties in learning long-term dependencies. To tackle this problem, we propose an architecture called segmented-memory recurrent neural network (SMRNN). A symbolic sequence is broken into segments and then presented as inputs to the SMRNN one symbol per cycle. The SMRNN uses separate internal states to store symbol-level context, as well as segment-level context. The symbol-level context is updated for each symbol presented for input. The segment-level context is updated after each segment. The SMRNN is trained using an extended real-time recurrent learning algorithm. We test the performance of SMRNN on the information latching problem, the "two-sequence problem" and the problem of protein secondary structure (PSS) prediction. Our implementation results indicate that SMRNN performs better on long-term dependency problems than conventional RNNs. Besides, we also theoretically analyze how the segmented memory of SMRNN helps learning long-term temporal dependencies and study the impact of the segment length.

On solving three-dimensional open-dimension rectangular packing problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Junqueira, Leonardo; Morabito, Reinaldo

2017-05-01

In this article, a recently proposed three-dimensional open-dimension rectangular packing problem is considered, in which the objective is to find a minimal volume rectangular container that packs a set of rectangular boxes. The literature has tackled small-sized instances of this problem by means of optimization solvers, position-free mixed-integer programming (MIP) formulations and piecewise linearization approaches. In this study, the problem is alternatively addressed by means of grid-based position MIP formulations, whereas still considering optimization solvers and the same piecewise linearization techniques. A comparison of the computational performance of both models is then presented, when tested with benchmark problem instances and with new instances, and it is shown that the grid-based position MIP formulation can be competitive, depending on the characteristics of the instances. The grid-based position MIP formulation is also embedded with real-world practical constraints, such as cargo stability, and results are additionally presented.

Genetic Algorithm for Traveling Salesman Problem with Modified Cycle Crossover Operator

PubMed Central

Mohamd Shoukry, Alaa; Gani, Showkat

2017-01-01

Genetic algorithms are evolutionary techniques used for optimization purposes according to survival of the fittest idea. These methods do not ensure optimal solutions; however, they give good approximation usually in time. The genetic algorithms are useful for NP-hard problems, especially the traveling salesman problem. The genetic algorithm depends on selection criteria, crossover, and mutation operators. To tackle the traveling salesman problem using genetic algorithms, there are various representations such as binary, path, adjacency, ordinal, and matrix representations. In this article, we propose a new crossover operator for traveling salesman problem to minimize the total distance. This approach has been linked with path representation, which is the most natural way to represent a legal tour. Computational results are also reported with some traditional path representation methods like partially mapped and order crossovers along with new cycle crossover operator for some benchmark TSPLIB instances and found improvements. PMID:29209364

Genetic Algorithm for Traveling Salesman Problem with Modified Cycle Crossover Operator.

PubMed

Hussain, Abid; Muhammad, Yousaf Shad; Nauman Sajid, M; Hussain, Ijaz; Mohamd Shoukry, Alaa; Gani, Showkat

2017-01-01

Genetic algorithms are evolutionary techniques used for optimization purposes according to survival of the fittest idea. These methods do not ensure optimal solutions; however, they give good approximation usually in time. The genetic algorithms are useful for NP-hard problems, especially the traveling salesman problem. The genetic algorithm depends on selection criteria, crossover, and mutation operators. To tackle the traveling salesman problem using genetic algorithms, there are various representations such as binary, path, adjacency, ordinal, and matrix representations. In this article, we propose a new crossover operator for traveling salesman problem to minimize the total distance. This approach has been linked with path representation, which is the most natural way to represent a legal tour. Computational results are also reported with some traditional path representation methods like partially mapped and order crossovers along with new cycle crossover operator for some benchmark TSPLIB instances and found improvements.

Technical determinants of tackle and ruck performance in International rugby union.

PubMed

Hendricks, Sharief; van Niekerk, Tiffany; Sin, Drew Wade; Lambert, Mike; den Hollander, Steve; Brown, James; Maree, Willie; Treu, Paul; Till, Kevin; Jones, Ben

2018-03-01

The most frequently occurring contact events in rugby union are the tackle and ruck. The ability repeatedly to engage and win the tackle and ruck has been associated with team success. To win the tackle and ruck, players have to perform specific techniques. These techniques have not been studied at the highest level of rugby union. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify technical determinants of tackle and ruck performance at the highest level of rugby union. A total of 4479 tackle and 2914 ruck events were coded for the Six Nations and Championship competitions. Relative risk ratio (RR), the ratio of the probability of an outcome occurring when a characteristic was observed (versus the non-observed characteristic), was determined using multinomial logistic regression. Executing front-on tackles reduced the likelihood of offloads and tackle breaks in both competitions (Six Nations RR 3.0 Behind tackle, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.9-4.6, effect size [ES] = large, P < 0.001); Championship RR 2.9 Jersey tackle, 95% CI: 1.3-6.4, ES = moderate, P = 0.01). Fending during contact increased the chances of offloading and breaking the tackle in both competitions (Six Nations RR 4.5 Strong, 95% CI: 2.2-9.2, ES = large, P = P < 0.001; Championship RR 5.1 Moderate, 95% CI: 3.5-7.4, ES = large, P < 0.001). For the ruck, actively placing the ball increased the probability of maintaining possession (Six Nations RR 2.2, 95% CI: 1.1-4.3, ES = moderate, P = 0.03); Championship RR 4.0, 95% CI: 1.3-11.8, ES = large, P = 0.01). The techniques identified in this study should be incorporated and emphasised during training to prepare players for competition. Furthermore, these techniques need to be added to coaching manuals for the tackle and ruck.

Tackle technique and tackle-related injuries in high-level South African Rugby Union under-18 players: real-match video analysis.

PubMed

Burger, Nicholas; Lambert, Michael I; Viljoen, Wayne; Brown, James C; Readhead, Clint; Hendricks, Sharief

2016-08-01

The high injury rate associated with rugby union is primarily due to the tackle, and poor contact technique has been identified as a risk factor for injury. We aimed to determine whether the tackle technique proficiency scores were different in injurious tackles versus tackles that did not result in injury using real-match scenarios in high-level youth rugby union. Injury surveillance was conducted at the under-18 Craven Week tournaments (2011-2013). Tackle-related injury information was used to identify injury events in the match video footage and non-injury events were identified for the injured player cohort. Injury and non-injury events were scored for technique proficiency and Cohen's effect sizes were calculated and the Student t test (p<0.05) was performed to compare injury versus non-injury scores. The overall mean score for front-on ball-carrier proficiency was 7.17±1.90 and 9.02±2.15 for injury and non-injury tackle events, respectively (effect size=moderate; p<0.05). The overall mean score for side/behind ball-carrier proficiency was 4.09±2.12 and 7.68±1.72 for injury and non-injury tackle events, respectively (effect size=large; p<0.01). The overall mean score for front-on tackler proficiency was 7.00±1.95 and 9.35±2.56 for injury and non-injury tackle events, respectively (effect size=moderate; p<0.05). The overall mean score for side/behind tackler proficiency was 5.47±1.60 and 8.14±1.75 for injury and non-injury tackle events, respectively (effect size=large; p<0.01). Higher overall mean and criterion-specific tackle-related technique scores were associated with a non-injury outcome. The ability to perform well during tackle events may decrease the risk of injury and may manifest in superior performance. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

46 CFR 121.300 - Ground tackle and mooring lines.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Ground tackle and mooring lines. 121.300 Section 121.300... MISCELLANEOUS SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT Mooring and Towing Equipment § 121.300 Ground tackle and mooring lines. A vessel must be fitted with ground tackle and mooring lines necessary for the vessel to be safely anchored...

46 CFR 121.300 - Ground tackle and mooring lines.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 46 Shipping 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Ground tackle and mooring lines. 121.300 Section 121.300... MISCELLANEOUS SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT Mooring and Towing Equipment § 121.300 Ground tackle and mooring lines. A vessel must be fitted with ground tackle and mooring lines necessary for the vessel to be safely anchored...

Soft Computing Methods for Disulfide Connectivity Prediction.

PubMed

Márquez-Chamorro, Alfonso E; Aguilar-Ruiz, Jesús S

2015-01-01

The problem of protein structure prediction (PSP) is one of the main challenges in structural bioinformatics. To tackle this problem, PSP can be divided into several subproblems. One of these subproblems is the prediction of disulfide bonds. The disulfide connectivity prediction problem consists in identifying which nonadjacent cysteines would be cross-linked from all possible candidates. Determining the disulfide bond connectivity between the cysteines of a protein is desirable as a previous step of the 3D PSP, as the protein conformational search space is highly reduced. The most representative soft computing approaches for the disulfide bonds connectivity prediction problem of the last decade are summarized in this paper. Certain aspects, such as the different methodologies based on soft computing approaches (artificial neural network or support vector machine) or features of the algorithms, are used for the classification of these methods.

Big questions come in bundles, hence they should be tackled systemically.

PubMed

Bunge, Mario

2014-01-01

A big problem is, by definition, one involving either multiple traits of a thing, or a collection of things. Because such problems are systemic or global rather than local or sectoral, they call for a systemic approach, and often a multidisciplinary one as well. Just think of individual and public health problems, or of income inequality, gender discrimination, housing, environmental, or political participation issues. All of them are inter-related, so that focusing on one of them at a time is bound to produce either short-term solutions or utter failure. This is also why single-issue political movements are bound to fail. In other words, big problems are systemic and must, therefore be approached systemically--though with the provisos that systemism must not be confused with holism and that synthesis complements analysis instead of replacing it.

Structures vibration control via Tuned Mass Dampers using a co-evolution Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salcedo-Sanz, S.; Camacho-Gómez, C.; Magdaleno, A.; Pereira, E.; Lorenzana, A.

2017-04-01

In this paper we tackle a problem of optimal design and location of Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) for structures subjected to earthquake ground motions, using a novel meta-heuristic algorithm. Specifically, the Coral Reefs Optimization (CRO) with Substrate Layer (CRO-SL) is proposed as a competitive co-evolution algorithm with different exploration procedures within a single population of solutions. The proposed approach is able to solve the TMD design and location problem, by exploiting the combination of different types of searching mechanisms. This promotes a powerful evolutionary-like algorithm for optimization problems, which is shown to be very effective in this particular problem of TMDs tuning. The proposed algorithm's performance has been evaluated and compared with several reference algorithms in two building models with two and four floors, respectively.

Trials for the cosmological 7Li problem with 7Be beams at CRIB and collaborating studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayakawa, S.

2017-09-01

For many years, the cosmological ^7 Li problem has been tackled from various aspects. The nuclear reaction data have also been improved, but still there remains some ambiguities. We review our experimental plans to measure the cross sections of three key reactions which act to destroy ^7 Be during the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). These experiments are all based on ^7 Be beams produced at Center-for-Nuclear-Study Radioactive Ion Beam separator (CRIB) in collaborations mainly with research groups from INFN-LNS and RCNP. The preliminary result of the previous experiment and the future plan are discussed.

Quantitative Diagnosis of Continuous-Valued, Stead-State Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouquette, N.

1995-01-01

Quantitative diagnosis involves numerically estimating the values of unobservable parameters that best explain the observed parameter values. We consider quantitative diagnosis for continuous, lumped- parameter, steady-state physical systems because such models are easy to construct and the diagnosis problem is considerably simpler than that for corresponding dynamic models. To further tackle the difficulties of numerically inverting a simulation model to compute a diagnosis, we propose to decompose a physical system model in terms of feedback loops. This decomposition reduces the dimension of the problem and consequently decreases the diagnosis search space. We illustrate this approach on a model of thermal control system studied in earlier research.

Variable Selection for Nonparametric Quantile Regression via Smoothing Spline AN OVA

PubMed Central

Lin, Chen-Yen; Bondell, Howard; Zhang, Hao Helen; Zou, Hui

2014-01-01

Quantile regression provides a more thorough view of the effect of covariates on a response. Nonparametric quantile regression has become a viable alternative to avoid restrictive parametric assumption. The problem of variable selection for quantile regression is challenging, since important variables can influence various quantiles in different ways. We tackle the problem via regularization in the context of smoothing spline ANOVA models. The proposed sparse nonparametric quantile regression (SNQR) can identify important variables and provide flexible estimates for quantiles. Our numerical study suggests the promising performance of the new procedure in variable selection and function estimation. Supplementary materials for this article are available online. PMID:24554792

Metropolitan model deployment initiative national evaluation strategy

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-03-01

Deregulation of the motor carrier industry combined with a period of sustained economic growth has resulted in sizeable increases in the number of new motor carriers entering interstate operation. Discussions with key stakeholders in the motor carrie...

Demonstration of the spin solar cell and spin photodiode effect

PubMed Central

Endres, B.; Ciorga, M.; Schmid, M.; Utz, M.; Bougeard, D.; Weiss, D.; Bayreuther, G.; Back, C.H.

2013-01-01

Spin injection and extraction are at the core of semiconductor spintronics. Electrical injection is one method of choice for the creation of a sizeable spin polarization in a semiconductor, requiring especially tailored tunnel or Schottky barriers. Alternatively, optical orientation can be used to generate spins in semiconductors with significant spin-orbit interaction, if optical selection rules are obeyed, typically by using circularly polarized light at a well-defined wavelength. Here we introduce a novel concept for spin injection/extraction that combines the principle of a solar cell with the creation of spin accumulation. We demonstrate that efficient optical spin injection can be achieved with unpolarized light by illuminating a p-n junction where the p-type region consists of a ferromagnet. The discovered mechanism opens the window for the optical generation of a sizeable spin accumulation also in semiconductors without direct band gap such as Si or Ge. PMID:23820766

An investigation of shoulder forces in active shoulder tackles in rugby union football.

PubMed

Usman, Juliana; McIntosh, Andrew S; Fréchède, Bertrand

2011-11-01

In rugby union football the tackle is the most frequently executed skill and one most associated with injury, including shoulder injury to the tackler. Despite the importance of the tackle, little is known about the magnitude of shoulder forces in the tackle and influencing factors. The objectives of the study were to measure the shoulder force in the tackle, as well as the effects of shoulder padding, skill level, side of body, player size, and experimental setting on shoulder force. Experiments were conducted in laboratory and field settings using a repeated measures design. Thirty-five participants were recruited to the laboratory and 98 to the field setting. All were male aged over 18 years with rugby experience. The maximum force applied to the shoulder in an active shoulder tackle was measured with a custom built forceplate incorporated into a 45 kg tackle bag. The overall average maximum shoulder force was 1660 N in the laboratory and 1997 N in the field. This difference was significant. The shoulder force for tackling without shoulder pads was 1684 N compared to 1635 N with shoulder pads. There was no difference between the shoulder forces on the dominant and non-dominant sides. Shoulder force reduced with tackle repetition. No relationship was observed between player skill level and size. A substantial force can be applied to the shoulder and to an opponent in the tackle. This force is within the shoulder's injury tolerance range and is unaffected by shoulder pads. Copyright © 2011 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What's Trust Got to Do with It? A Communications and Engagement Guide for School Leaders Tackling the Problem of Persistently Failing Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Jean

2011-01-01

The rationale for taking bold action on the nation's persistently failing schools can be summed up in one dramatic and disturbing statistic: half of the young Americans who drop out of high school attend just 12 percent of the nation's schools. Ending the cycle of failure at schools is a daunting challenge and a surprisingly controversial one.…

Influence of Gender Streamed (Boys' and Girls' Only) Classes on Coeducational Secondary Schools' Mathematics Teachers Perceptions in Nakuru, Uasingishu, Kericho and Baringo Counties of Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barmao, Anne C.; Changeiywo, Johnson M.; Githua, Bernard N.

2015-01-01

The skills acquired in mathematics provide a country with a human resource that is highly educated and able to tackle most of the country's social economic problems. However, the performance of students at the KCSE mathematics examinations in Kenya has been dismal for many years. In addition, majority of the girls in particular have been…

State dependent optimization of measurement policy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konkarikoski, K.

2010-07-01

Measurements are the key to rational decision making. Measurement information generates value, when it is applied in the decision making. An investment cost and maintenance costs are associated with each component of the measurement system. Clearly, there is - under a given set of scenarios - a measurement setup that is optimal in expected (discounted) utility. This paper deals how the measurement policy optimization is affected by different system states and how this problem can be tackled.

Deterministic annealing for density estimation by multivariate normal mixtures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kloppenburg, Martin; Tavan, Paul

1997-03-01

An approach to maximum-likelihood density estimation by mixtures of multivariate normal distributions for large high-dimensional data sets is presented. Conventionally that problem is tackled by notoriously unstable expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms. We remove these instabilities by the introduction of soft constraints, enabling deterministic annealing. Our developments are motivated by the proof that algorithmically stable fuzzy clustering methods that are derived from statistical physics analogs are special cases of EM procedures.

Overabundance of sika deer and immunocontraception

PubMed Central

NOGUCHI, Junko

2016-01-01

The impact of deer overabundance is a worldwide problem. Along with habitat expansion and population increase, damage by sika deer to the forest ecosystem and agriculture has become a serious issue in Japan. Deer also transmit a number of diseases and parasites to humans and livestock. The overabundance of deer is a result of their strong fecundity, and therefore the present situation should, in theory, be tackled by experts in reproductive biology. PMID:27890873

Reconfigurable Computing for Computational Science: A New Focus in High Performance Computing

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-11-01

in the past decade. Researchers are regularly employing the power of large computing systems and parallel processing to tackle larger and more...complex problems in all of the physical sciences. For the past decade or so, most of this growth in computing power has been “free” with increased...the scientific computing community as a means to continued growth in computing capability. This paper offers a glimpse of the hardware and

Simulation of acid water movement in canals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Truong, To; Tat Dac, Nguyen; Ngoc Phienc, Huynh

1996-05-01

An attempt to tackle the problem of the propagation of acid water in canals is described, and a mathematical model to simulate the acid water movement is developed, in which the jurbanite equilibrium is found to prevail. The processes of settling owing to sedimentation, precipitation and redissolution have been considered in the modelling. Data available from Tan Thanh, in the Plain of Reeds of the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam, are used as a case study.

Strange Deja Vu: Tackling Information Sharing Problems for Efforts Against Transnational Organized Crime

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-01

as the demand in the US for drugs produced in Latin America (e.g., cocaine, marijuana , methamphetamines) remains, Latin American drug cartels will...6,100 kilograms of cocaine, 10,284 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,619 pounds of heroin, 349,304 pounds of marijuana , and nearly $150 million in United...benefits from increased information sharing with the Intelligence Community and other federal agencies through a favorable relationship with BIFS

Catastrophic rugby injuries of the spinal cord: changing patterns of injury.

PubMed Central

Scher, A T

1991-01-01

In reports from the UK and New Zealand, it is noted that the incidence of rugby injuries to the cervical spinal cord has dropped and that the percentage of players injured in the tackle has similarly decreased. In contrast, this does not appear to be the pattern in South Africa and an analysis has therefore been made of 40 rugby players sustaining injuries to the spinal cord during the period 1985 to 1989. The radiological appearances on admission have been correlated with the circumstances of injury, associated orthopaedic injuries and neurological deficits. The tackle was responsible for the majority of injuries, causing more than the scrum. Tackles were also responsible for more cases of complete, permanent quadriplegia than the scrum. The commonest cause of injury in players being tackled was the high tackle around the neck, while the commonest cause of injury in players making the tackle was the dive tackle. This survey has shown that the tackle is now the major cause of spinal cord injury in South African rugby, in contrast to earlier analyses in which the scrum was identified as the most common cause. Images Figure 1 Figure 2 PMID:1913034

A Nationwide View of Undergraduates' Interest in Earth-related Careers and Motivation to Tackle Environmental Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kastens, K. A.; Mara, V.; Turrin, M.

2016-12-01

The InTeGrate Attitudinal Instrument (IAI) is an on-line survey that probes students' interest in Earth-related careers, their concern about environmental issues, and their motivation to tackle grand challenges of environmental sustainability and resource limitations. The survey has been taken by several thousand students, at the beginning and end of more than a hundred different undergraduate courses throughout the United States. All courses include some Earth/environmental content, but not all in are geoscience departments. Although results vary somewhat between subpopulations, taken in the aggregate the data paint a nation-wide picture of the state of undergraduates' environmental interests and concerns. Regardless of intended career path, respondents place a high value on working for an organization that is committed to environmentally sustainable practices. Respondents consistently indicate that developments such as global climate change, loss of biodiversity, and water resource limitations are a problem; however, these same students are much less consistent when it comes to engaging in personal behaviors that would help mitigate environmental problems, such as washing clothes in cold water or using recyclable bags when shopping. When asked what factors or sources of information influence their decisions to engage in the specified environmentally sustainable behaviors, the factor most often cited, by a wide margin, is "desire to save money," followed by "concern about pollution." A final open-ended question asked students if they can envision using what they have learned in this course to help society overcome problems of environmental degradation, natural resources limitations, or other environmental issues; if yes, how, and if no, why not. Strong majorities said yes. Among the minority who said no, commonly cited reasons include lack of empowerment (I'm only one person, the problems are too big); course was too general and didn't address solutions; and planning a career path that is not relevant to these problems.

A prospectus on kinetic heliophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howes, Gregory G.

2017-05-01

Under the low density and high temperature conditions typical of heliospheric plasmas, the macroscopic evolution of the heliosphere is strongly affected by the kinetic plasma physics governing fundamental microphysical mechanisms. Kinetic turbulence, collisionless magnetic reconnection, particle acceleration, and kinetic instabilities are four poorly understood, grand-challenge problems that lie at the new frontier of kinetic heliophysics. The increasing availability of high cadence and high phase-space resolution measurements of particle velocity distributions by current and upcoming spacecraft missions and of massively parallel nonlinear kinetic simulations of weakly collisional heliospheric plasmas provides the opportunity to transform our understanding of these kinetic mechanisms through the full utilization of the information contained in the particle velocity distributions. Several major considerations for future investigations of kinetic heliophysics are examined. Turbulent dissipation followed by particle heating is highlighted as an inherently two-step process in weakly collisional plasmas, distinct from the more familiar case in fluid theory. Concerted efforts must be made to tackle the big-data challenge of visualizing the high-dimensional (3D-3V) phase space of kinetic plasma theory through physics-based reductions. Furthermore, the development of innovative analysis methods that utilize full velocity-space measurements, such as the field-particle correlation technique, will enable us to gain deeper insight into these four grand-challenge problems of kinetic heliophysics. A systems approach to tackle the multi-scale problem of heliophysics through a rigorous connection between the kinetic physics at microscales and the self-consistent evolution of the heliosphere at macroscales will propel the field of kinetic heliophysics into the future.

A prospectus on kinetic heliophysics

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Under the low density and high temperature conditions typical of heliospheric plasmas, the macroscopic evolution of the heliosphere is strongly affected by the kinetic plasma physics governing fundamental microphysical mechanisms. Kinetic turbulence, collisionless magnetic reconnection, particle acceleration, and kinetic instabilities are four poorly understood, grand-challenge problems that lie at the new frontier of kinetic heliophysics. The increasing availability of high cadence and high phase-space resolution measurements of particle velocity distributions by current and upcoming spacecraft missions and of massively parallel nonlinear kinetic simulations of weakly collisional heliospheric plasmas provides the opportunity to transform our understanding of these kinetic mechanisms through the full utilization of the information contained in the particle velocity distributions. Several major considerations for future investigations of kinetic heliophysics are examined. Turbulent dissipation followed by particle heating is highlighted as an inherently two-step process in weakly collisional plasmas, distinct from the more familiar case in fluid theory. Concerted efforts must be made to tackle the big-data challenge of visualizing the high-dimensional (3D-3V) phase space of kinetic plasma theory through physics-based reductions. Furthermore, the development of innovative analysis methods that utilize full velocity-space measurements, such as the field-particle correlation technique, will enable us to gain deeper insight into these four grand-challenge problems of kinetic heliophysics. A systems approach to tackle the multi-scale problem of heliophysics through a rigorous connection between the kinetic physics at microscales and the self-consistent evolution of the heliosphere at macroscales will propel the field of kinetic heliophysics into the future. PMID:29104421

Does social marketing provide a framework for changing healthcare practice?

PubMed

Morris, Zoë Slote; Clarkson, Peter John

2009-07-01

We argue that social marketing can be used as a generic framework for analysing barriers to the take-up of clinical guidelines, and planning interventions which seek to enable this change. We reviewed the literature on take-up of clinical guidelines, in particular barriers and enablers to change; social marketing principles and social marketing applied to healthcare. We then applied the social marketing framework to analyse the literature and to consider implications for future guideline policy to assess its feasibility and accessibility. There is sizeable extant literature on healthcare practitioners' non-compliance with clinical guidelines. This is an international problem common to a number of settings. The reasons for poor levels of take up appear to be well understood, but not addressed adequately in practice. Applying a social marketing framework brings new insights to the problem." We show that a social marketing framework provides a useful solution-focused framework for systematically understanding barriers to individual behaviour change and designing interventions accordingly. Whether the social marketing framework provides an effective means of bringing about behaviour change remains an empirical question which has still to be tested in practice. The analysis presented here provides strong motivation to begin such testing.

Momentum and Kinetic Energy Before the Tackle in Rugby Union

PubMed Central

Hendricks, Sharief; Karpul, David; Lambert, Mike

2014-01-01

Understanding the physical demands of a tackle in match situations is important for safe and effective training, developing equipment and research. Physical components such as momentum and kinetic energy, and it relationship to tackle outcome is not known. The aim of this study was to compare momenta between ball-carrier and tackler, level of play (elite, university and junior) and position (forwards vs. backs), and describe the relationship between ball-carrier and tackler mass, velocity and momentum and the tackle outcome. Also, report on the ball-carrier and tackler kinetic energy before contact and the estimated magnitude of impact (energy distributed between ball-carrier and tackler upon contact). Velocity over 0.5 seconds before contact was determined using a 2-dimensional scaled version of the field generated from a computer alogorithm. Body masses of players were obtained from their player profiles. Momentum and kinetic energy were subsequently calculated for 60 tackle events. Ball-carriers were heavier than the tacklers (ball-carrier 100 ± 14 kg vs. tackler 93 ± 11 kg, d = 0.52, p = 0.0041, n = 60). Ball-carriers as forwards had a significantly higher momentum than backs (forwards 563 ± 226 Kg.m.s-1 n = 31 vs. backs 438 ± 135 Kg.m.s-1, d = 0.63, p = 0.0012, n = 29). Tacklers dominated 57% of tackles and ball-carriers dominated 43% of tackles. Despite the ball-carrier having a mass advantage before contact more frequently than the tackler, momentum advantage and tackle dominance between the ball-carrier and tackler was proportionally similar. These findings may reflect a characteristic of the modern game of rugby where efficiently heavier players (particularly forwards) are tactically predetermined to carry the ball in contact. Key Points First study to quantify momentum, kinetic energy, and magnitude of impact in rugby tackles across different levels in matches without a device attached to a player. Physical components alone, of either ball-carrier or tackler, are not good predictors of tackle dominance. The range of magnitudes of impact of injury free tackles observed in this study provides evidence for the physical tolerance of players during the tackle. PMID:25177182

Momentum and kinetic energy before the tackle in rugby union.

PubMed

Hendricks, Sharief; Karpul, David; Lambert, Mike

2014-09-01

Understanding the physical demands of a tackle in match situations is important for safe and effective training, developing equipment and research. Physical components such as momentum and kinetic energy, and it relationship to tackle outcome is not known. The aim of this study was to compare momenta between ball-carrier and tackler, level of play (elite, university and junior) and position (forwards vs. backs), and describe the relationship between ball-carrier and tackler mass, velocity and momentum and the tackle outcome. Also, report on the ball-carrier and tackler kinetic energy before contact and the estimated magnitude of impact (energy distributed between ball-carrier and tackler upon contact). Velocity over 0.5 seconds before contact was determined using a 2-dimensional scaled version of the field generated from a computer alogorithm. Body masses of players were obtained from their player profiles. Momentum and kinetic energy were subsequently calculated for 60 tackle events. Ball-carriers were heavier than the tacklers (ball-carrier 100 ± 14 kg vs. tackler 93 ± 11 kg, d = 0.52, p = 0.0041, n = 60). Ball-carriers as forwards had a significantly higher momentum than backs (forwards 563 ± 226 Kg(.)m(.)s(-1) n = 31 vs. backs 438 ± 135 Kg(.)m(.)s(-1), d = 0.63, p = 0.0012, n = 29). Tacklers dominated 57% of tackles and ball-carriers dominated 43% of tackles. Despite the ball-carrier having a mass advantage before contact more frequently than the tackler, momentum advantage and tackle dominance between the ball-carrier and tackler was proportionally similar. These findings may reflect a characteristic of the modern game of rugby where efficiently heavier players (particularly forwards) are tactically predetermined to carry the ball in contact. Key PointsFirst study to quantify momentum, kinetic energy, and magnitude of impact in rugby tackles across different levels in matches without a device attached to a player.Physical components alone, of either ball-carrier or tackler, are not good predictors of tackle dominance.The range of magnitudes of impact of injury free tackles observed in this study provides evidence for the physical tolerance of players during the tackle.

The Evolution of Middle Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George, Paul S.

2001-01-01

Over the past 30 years, Florida's 500 middle schools have become more sizeable, racially segregated, and security conscious. Other features include interdisciplinary team organization, warring curricula, block schedules, integrated technology, inclusion, ability grouping, corporate practices, and female and minority principals committed to…

Alexithymia and psychosocial problems among Italian preadolescents. A latent class analysis approach.

PubMed

Mannarini, Stefania; Balottin, Laura; Toldo, Irene; Gatta, Michela

2016-10-01

The study, conducted on Italian preadolscents aged 11 to 13 belonging to the general population, aims to investigate the relationship between the emotional functioning, namely, alexithymia, and the risk of developing behavioral and emotional problems measured using the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire. The latent class analysis approach allowed to identify two latent variables, accounting for the internalizing (emotional symptoms and difficulties in emotional awareness) and for the externalizing problems (conduct problems and hyperactivity, problematic relationships with peers, poor prosocial behaviors and externally oriented thinking). The two latent variables featured two latent classes: the difficulty in dealing with problems and the strength to face problems that was representative of most of the healthy participants with specific gender differences. Along with the analysis of psychopathological behaviors, the study of resilience and strengths can prove to be a key step in order to develop valuable preventive approaches to tackle psychiatric disorders. © 2016 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Six Sigma Approach to Improve Stripping Quality of Automotive Electronics Component – a case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Razali, Noraini Mohd; Murni Mohamad Kadri, Siti; Con Ee, Toh

2018-03-01

Lacking of problem solving skill techniques and cooperation between support groups are the two obstacles that always been faced in actual production line. Inadequate detail analysis and inappropriate technique in solving the problem may cause the repeating issues which may give impact to the organization performance. This study utilizes a well-structured six sigma DMAIC with combination of other problem solving tools to solve product quality problem in manufacturing of automotive electronics component. The study is concentrated at the stripping process, a critical process steps with highest rejection rate that contribute to the scrap and rework performance. The detail analysis is conducted in the analysis phase to identify the actual root cause of the problem. Then several improvement activities are implemented and the results show that the rejection rate due to stripping defect decrease tremendously and the process capability index improved from 0.75 to 1.67. This results prove that the six sigma approach used to tackle the quality problem is substantially effective.

Does player time-in-game affect tackle technique in elite level rugby union?

PubMed

Tierney, Gregory J; Denvir, Karl; Farrell, Garreth; Simms, Ciaran K

2018-02-01

It has been hypothesised that fatigue may be a major factor in tackle-related injury risk in rugby union and hence more injuries occur in the later stages of a game. The aim of this study is to identify changes in ball carrier or tackler proficiency characteristics, using elite level match video data, as player time-in-game increases. Qualitative observational cohort study. Three 2014/15 European Rugby Champions Cup games were selected for ball carrier and tackler proficiency analysis. Analysis was only conducted on players who started and remained on the field for the entire game. A separate analysis was conducted on 10 randomly selected 2014/15 European Rugby Champions Cup/Pro 12 games to assess the time distribution of tackles throughout a game. A Chi-square test and one-way way ANOVA with post-hoc testing was conducted to identify significant differences (p<0.05) for proficiency characteristics and tackle counts between quarters in the game, respectively. Player time-in-game did not affect tackle proficiency for both the ball carrier and tackler. Any results that showed statistical significance did not indicate a trend of deterioration in proficiency with increased player time-in-game. The time distribution of tackles analysis indicated that more tackles occurring in the final quarter of the game than the first (p=0.04) and second (p=<0.01). It appears that player time-in-game does not affect tackler or ball carrier tackle technique proficiency at the elite level. More tackles occurring in the final quarter of a game provides an alternative explanation to more tackle-related injuries occurring at this stage. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Island Grouping Genetic Algorithm for Fuzzy Partitioning Problems

PubMed Central

Salcedo-Sanz, S.; Del Ser, J.; Geem, Z. W.

2014-01-01

This paper presents a novel fuzzy clustering technique based on grouping genetic algorithms (GGAs), which are a class of evolutionary algorithms especially modified to tackle grouping problems. Our approach hinges on a GGA devised for fuzzy clustering by means of a novel encoding of individuals (containing elements and clusters sections), a new fitness function (a superior modification of the Davies Bouldin index), specially tailored crossover and mutation operators, and the use of a scheme based on a local search and a parallelization process, inspired from an island-based model of evolution. The overall performance of our approach has been assessed over a number of synthetic and real fuzzy clustering problems with different objective functions and distance measures, from which it is concluded that the proposed approach shows excellent performance in all cases. PMID:24977235

Multiple crack detection in 3D using a stable XFEM and global optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agathos, Konstantinos; Chatzi, Eleni; Bordas, Stéphane P. A.

2018-02-01

A numerical scheme is proposed for the detection of multiple cracks in three dimensional (3D) structures. The scheme is based on a variant of the extended finite element method (XFEM) and a hybrid optimizer solution. The proposed XFEM variant is particularly well-suited for the simulation of 3D fracture problems, and as such serves as an efficient solution to the so-called forward problem. A set of heuristic optimization algorithms are recombined into a multiscale optimization scheme. The introduced approach proves effective in tackling the complex inverse problem involved, where identification of multiple flaws is sought on the basis of sparse measurements collected near the structural boundary. The potential of the scheme is demonstrated through a set of numerical case studies of varying complexity.

Mesoscale modeling: solving complex flows in biology and biotechnology.

PubMed

Mills, Zachary Grant; Mao, Wenbin; Alexeev, Alexander

2013-07-01

Fluids are involved in practically all physiological activities of living organisms. However, biological and biorelated flows are hard to analyze due to the inherent combination of interdependent effects and processes that occur on a multitude of spatial and temporal scales. Recent advances in mesoscale simulations enable researchers to tackle problems that are central for the understanding of such flows. Furthermore, computational modeling effectively facilitates the development of novel therapeutic approaches. Among other methods, dissipative particle dynamics and the lattice Boltzmann method have become increasingly popular during recent years due to their ability to solve a large variety of problems. In this review, we discuss recent applications of these mesoscale methods to several fluid-related problems in medicine, bioengineering, and biotechnology. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

TSCA Section 21 Petition Requesting EPA to Regulate Lead in Fishing Tackle

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This petition requests EPA to promulgate regulations under section 6 of TSCA to protect the environment from fishing tackle containing lead including fishing weights, sinkers, lures, jigs, and/or other tackle.

Reducing corruption in a Mexican medical school: impact assessment across two cross-sectional surveys.

PubMed

Paredes-Solís, Sergio; Villegas-Arrizón, Ascensio; Ledogar, Robert J; Delabra-Jardón, Verónica; Alvarez-Chávez, José; Legorreta-Soberanis, José; Nava-Aguilera, Elizabeth; Cockcroft, Anne; Andersson, Neil

2011-12-21

Corruption pervades educational and other institutions worldwide and medical schools are not exempt. Empirical evidence about levels and types of corruption in medical schools is sparse. We conducted surveys in 2000 and 2007 in the medical school of the Autonomous University of Guerrero in Mexico to document student perceptions and experience of corruption and to support the medical school to take actions to tackle corruption. In both 2000 and 2007 medical students completed a self-administered questionnaire in the classroom without the teacher present. The questionnaire asked about unofficial payments for admission to medical school, for passing an examination and for administrative procedures. We examined factors related to the experience of corruption in multivariate analysis. Focus groups of students discussed the quantitative findings. In 2000, 6% of 725 responding students had paid unofficially to obtain entry into the medical school; this proportion fell to 1.6% of the 436 respondents in 2007. In 2000, 15% of students reported having paid a bribe to pass an examination, not significantly different from the 18% who reported this in 2007. In 2007, students were significantly more likely to have bribed a teacher to pass an examination if they were in the fourth year, if they had been subjected to sexual harassment or political pressure, and if they had been in the university for five years or more. Students resented the need to make unofficial payments and suggested tackling the problem by disciplining corrupt teachers. The university administration made several changes to the system of admissions and examinations in the medical school, based on the findings of the 2000 survey. The fall in the rate of bribery to enter the medical school was probably the result of the new admissions system instituted after the first survey. Further actions will be necessary to tackle the continuing presence of bribery to pass examinations and for administrative procedures. The social audit helped to draw attention to corruption and to stimulate actions to tackle it.

Bayesian Peak Picking for NMR Spectra

PubMed Central

Cheng, Yichen; Gao, Xin; Liang, Faming

2013-01-01

Protein structure determination is a very important topic in structural genomics, which helps people to understand varieties of biological functions such as protein-protein interactions, protein–DNA interactions and so on. Nowadays, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has often been used to determine the three-dimensional structures of protein in vivo. This study aims to automate the peak picking step, the most important and tricky step in NMR structure determination. We propose to model the NMR spectrum by a mixture of bivariate Gaussian densities and use the stochastic approximation Monte Carlo algorithm as the computational tool to solve the problem. Under the Bayesian framework, the peak picking problem is casted as a variable selection problem. The proposed method can automatically distinguish true peaks from false ones without preprocessing the data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort in the literature that tackles the peak picking problem for NMR spectrum data using Bayesian method. PMID:24184964

Accurate ω-ψ Spectral Solution of the Singular Driven Cavity Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Auteri, F.; Quartapelle, L.; Vigevano, L.

2002-08-01

This article provides accurate spectral solutions of the driven cavity problem, calculated in the vorticity-stream function representation without smoothing the corner singularities—a prima facie impossible task. As in a recent benchmark spectral calculation by primitive variables of Botella and Peyret, closed-form contributions of the singular solution for both zero and finite Reynolds numbers are subtracted from the unknown of the problem tackled here numerically in biharmonic form. The method employed is based on a split approach to the vorticity and stream function equations, a Galerkin-Legendre approximation of the problem for the perturbation, and an evaluation of the nonlinear terms by Gauss-Legendre numerical integration. Results computed for Re=0, 100, and 1000 compare well with the benchmark steady solutions provided by the aforementioned collocation-Chebyshev projection method. The validity of the proposed singularity subtraction scheme for computing time-dependent solutions is also established.

Sparse Covariance Matrix Estimation by DCA-Based Algorithms.

PubMed

Phan, Duy Nhat; Le Thi, Hoai An; Dinh, Tao Pham

2017-11-01

This letter proposes a novel approach using the [Formula: see text]-norm regularization for the sparse covariance matrix estimation (SCME) problem. The objective function of SCME problem is composed of a nonconvex part and the [Formula: see text] term, which is discontinuous and difficult to tackle. Appropriate DC (difference of convex functions) approximations of [Formula: see text]-norm are used that result in approximation SCME problems that are still nonconvex. DC programming and DCA (DC algorithm), powerful tools in nonconvex programming framework, are investigated. Two DC formulations are proposed and corresponding DCA schemes developed. Two applications of the SCME problem that are considered are classification via sparse quadratic discriminant analysis and portfolio optimization. A careful empirical experiment is performed through simulated and real data sets to study the performance of the proposed algorithms. Numerical results showed their efficiency and their superiority compared with seven state-of-the-art methods.

Stratified Shear Flows In Pipe Geometries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harabin, George; Camassa, Roberto; McLaughlin, Richard; UNC Joint Fluids Lab Team Team

2015-11-01

Exact and series solutions to the full Navier-Stokes equations coupled to the advection diffusion equation are investigated in tilted three-dimensional pipe geometries. Analytic techniques for studying the three-dimensional problem provide a means for tackling interesting questions such as the optimal domain for mass transport, and provide new avenues for experimental investigation of diffusion driven flows. Both static and time dependent solutions will be discussed. NSF RTG DMS-0943851, NSF RTG ARC-1025523, NSF DMS-1009750.

Tackling breast cancer chemoresistance with nano-formulated siRNA

PubMed Central

Jones, SK; Merkel, OM

2017-01-01

Breast cancer is the leading cancer diagnosed in women and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Current limitations to standard chemotherapy in the clinic are extensively researched, including problems arising from repeated treatments with the same drugs. The phenomenon that cancer cells become resistant toward certain chemo drugs is called chemotherapy resistance. In this review, we are focusing on nanoformulation of siRNA for the fight against breast cancer chemoresistance. PMID:27648580

Moves on the Street: Classifying Crime Hotspots Using Aggregated Anonymized Data on People Dynamics.

PubMed

Bogomolov, Andrey; Lepri, Bruno; Staiano, Jacopo; Letouzé, Emmanuel; Oliver, Nuria; Pianesi, Fabio; Pentland, Alex

2015-09-01

The wealth of information provided by real-time streams of data has paved the way for life-changing technological advancements, improving the quality of life of people in many ways, from facilitating knowledge exchange to self-understanding and self-monitoring. Moreover, the analysis of anonymized and aggregated large-scale human behavioral data offers new possibilities to understand global patterns of human behavior and helps decision makers tackle problems of societal importance. In this article, we highlight the potential societal benefits derived from big data applications with a focus on citizen safety and crime prevention. First, we introduce the emergent new research area of big data for social good. Next, we detail a case study tackling the problem of crime hotspot classification, that is, the classification of which areas in a city are more likely to witness crimes based on past data. In the proposed approach we use demographic information along with human mobility characteristics as derived from anonymized and aggregated mobile network data. The hypothesis that aggregated human behavioral data captured from the mobile network infrastructure, in combination with basic demographic information, can be used to predict crime is supported by our findings. Our models, built on and evaluated against real crime data from London, obtain accuracy of almost 70% when classifying whether a specific area in the city will be a crime hotspot or not in the following month.

Designing, implementing and evaluating an online problem-based learning (PBL) environment--a pilot study.

PubMed

Ng, Manwa L; Bridges, Susan; Law, Sam Po; Whitehill, Tara

2014-01-01

Problem-based learning (PBL) has been shown to be effective for promoting student competencies in self-directed and collaborative learning, critical thinking, self-reflection and tackling novel situations. However, the need for face-to-face interactions at the same place and time severely limits the potential of traditional PBL. The requirements of space and for meeting at a specific location at the same time create timetabling difficulties. Such limitations need to be tackled before all potentials of PBL learning can be realized. The present study aimed at designing and implementing an online PBL environment for undergraduate speech/language pathology students, and assessing the associated pedagogical effectiveness. A group of eight PBL students were randomly selected to participate in the study. They underwent 4 weeks of online PBL using Adobe Connect. Upon completion of the experiment, they were assessed via a self-reported questionnaire and quantitative comparison with traditional PBL students based on the same written assignment. The questionnaire revealed that all participating students enjoyed online PBL, without any perceived negative effects on learning. Online PBL unanimously saved the students travel time to and from school. Statistical analysis indicated no significant difference in assignment grades between the online and traditional PBL groups, indicating that online PBL learning appears to be similarly effective as traditional face-to-face PBL learning.

Perspective: The language of leadership.

PubMed

Souba, Chip

2010-10-01

Human meaning is not given before language in and by some detached, prelinguistic domain and then labeled with words. Rather, language itself, always already ardently at play in our lives, is constitutive of the realities of our experience, opening up to us a uniquely human world. Language is the bridge between the created present and the uncreated future, affording leaders of medical schools with an underused opportunity to transform academic medicine. In creating and exchanging meaning, good leaders translate ambiguity into clear messages that convey the rationale for change and enroll others in a compelling strategy that fosters alignment and commitment. Because language influences our thinking and emotions, it is most powerful and effective for tackling challenges that rely heavily on conceptual, innovative solutions as opposed to those problems whose solutions are simple and technical in nature. However, many leaders in academic medicine spend much of their time in the domain of content, where issues are understandable, strategies are familiar, and solutions are seemingly apparent. Complex problems cannot be tackled by solely addressing content; the issue in question must be situated within an appropriate conversational context to provide a basis for action. Leaders do this by creating linguistic distinctions that prompt cognitive shifts in others, jarring them loose from their entrenched worldviews. This property of language--its ability to bring forth, out of the unspoken realm, innovative ideas and possibilities--will determine the future of our health care system and our world.

Tackling antibiotic resistance in India.

PubMed

Wattal, Chand; Goel, Neeraj

2014-12-01

Infectious diseases are major causes of mortality in India. This is aggravated by the increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) both in the community and in hospitals. Due to the emergence of resistance to all effective antibiotics in nosocomial pathogens, the situation calls for emergency measures to tackle AMR in India. India has huge challenges in tackling AMR, ranging from lack of surveillance mechanisms for monitoring AMR and use; effective hospital control policies; sanitation and non-human use of antimicrobial. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Govt. of India has taken initiatives to tackle AMR. Extensive guidelines have been drafted and a model worksheet has been developed as a roadmap to tackle AMR.

Solving the Nonlocality Riddle by Conformal Quantum Geometrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santamato, Enrico; de Martini, Francesco

2012-01-01

Since the 1935 proposal by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen the riddle of nonlocality, today demonstrated by the violation of Bell's inequalities within innumerable experiments, has been a cause of concern and confusion within the debate over the foundations of quantum mechanics. The present paper tackles the problem by a nonrelativistic approach based on conformal differential geometry applied to the solution of the dynamical problem of two entangled spin 1/2 particles. It is found that the quantum nonlocality may be understood on the basis of a conformal quantum geometrodynamics acting necessarily on the full "configuration space" of the entangled particles. At the end, the violation of the Bell inequalities is demonstrated without making recourse to the common nonlocality paradigm.

Network-based discovery through mechanistic systems biology. Implications for applications--SMEs and drug discovery: where the action is.

PubMed

Benson, Neil

2015-08-01

Phase II attrition remains the most important challenge for drug discovery. Tackling the problem requires improved understanding of the complexity of disease biology. Systems biology approaches to this problem can, in principle, deliver this. This article reviews the reports of the application of mechanistic systems models to drug discovery questions and discusses the added value. Although we are on the journey to the virtual human, the length, path and rate of learning from this remain an open question. Success will be dependent on the will to invest and make the most of the insight generated along the way. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bioindication of atmospheric trace metals--with special references to megacities.

PubMed

Markert, Bernd; Wuenschmann, Simone; Fraenzle, Stefan; Graciana Figueiredo, Ana Maria; Ribeiro, Andreza P; Wang, Meie

2011-01-01

After considering the particular problems of atmospheric pollution in megacities, i.e. agglomerations larger than 5 mio. inhabitants, with urbanization of World's population going on steadily, possibilities of active biomonitoring by means of green plants are discussed. Based on specific definitions of active and passive bioindication the chances of monitoring heavy metals in Sao Paulo megacity were demonstrated (first results published before). This is to show that there is need for increased use of bioindication to tackle the particular problems of megacities concerning environmental "health", the data to be processed according to the Multi-Markered-Bioindication-Concept (MMBC). Comparison to other work shows this approach to be reasonable. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Thick-Restart Lanczos Algorithm with Polynomial Filtering for Hermitian Eigenvalue Problems

DOE PAGES

Li, Ruipeng; Xi, Yuanzhe; Vecharynski, Eugene; ...

2016-08-16

Polynomial filtering can provide a highly effective means of computing all eigenvalues of a real symmetric (or complex Hermitian) matrix that are located in a given interval, anywhere in the spectrum. This paper describes a technique for tackling this problem by combining a thick-restart version of the Lanczos algorithm with deflation ("locking'') and a new type of polynomial filter obtained from a least-squares technique. Furthermore, the resulting algorithm can be utilized in a “spectrum-slicing” approach whereby a very large number of eigenvalues and associated eigenvectors of the matrix are computed by extracting eigenpairs located in different subintervals independently from onemore » another.« less

The TIMS Data User's Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kahle, Anne B. (Editor); Abbott, Elsa (Editor)

1986-01-01

A workshop was held to bring together all users of data from NASA's airborne Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS). The purpose was to allow users to compare results, data processing algorithms, and problems encountered; to update the users on the latest instrument changes and idiosyncracies, including distribution of the TIMS investigation guide; to inform the users of the wide range of problems that are currently being tackled by other TIMS investigators; to explore ways to expand the user community; to discuss current areas where more basic research is required; and to discuss the future directions of NASA's thermal infrared remote sensing programs. Also discussed were: geology, land use, archeology; and data processing and noise research.

ESTIMATES OF AGE-SPECIFIC URINARY EXCRETION RATES FOR CREATININE AMONG CHILDREN

EPA Science Inventory

The results of this study suggest that naïve adjustment by creatinine concentration, without consideration of the age-dependence of the physiological mechanisms controlling its excretion, may introduce sizeable error and is inappropriate when comparing metabolite concentrations a...

Risk factors for head injury events in professional rugby union: a video analysis of 464 head injury events to inform proposed injury prevention strategies.

PubMed

Tucker, Ross; Raftery, Martin; Kemp, Simon; Brown, James; Fuller, Gordon; Hester, Ben; Cross, Matthew; Quarrie, Ken

2017-08-01

The tackle is responsible for the majority of head injuries during rugby union. In order to address head injury risk, risk factors during the tackle must first be identified. This study analysed tackle characteristics in the professional game in order to inform potential interventions. 464 tackles resulting in a head injury assessment (HIA) were analysed in detail, with tackle type, direction, speed, acceleration, nature of head contact and player body position the characteristics of interest. Propensity to cause an HIA was significantly greater for active shoulder tackles, front-on tackles, high speeder tackles and an accelerating tackler. Head contact between a tackler's head and ball carrier's head or shoulder was significantly more likely to cause an HIA than contact below the level of the shoulder (incident rate ratio (IRR) 4.25, 95%-CI 3.38 to 5.35). The tackler experiences the majority (78%) of HIAs when head-to-head contact occurs. An upright tackler was 1.5 times more likely to experience an HIA than a bent at the waist tackler (IRR 1.44, 95% CI 1.18 to 1.76). This study confirms that energy transfer in the tackle is a risk factor for head injury, since direction, type and speed all influence HIA propensity. The study provides evidence that body position and the height of tackles should be a focus for interventions, since lowering height and adopting a bent at the waist body position is associated with reduced risk for both tacklers and ball carriers. To this end, World Rugby has implemented law change based on the present data. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Prediction-Correction Algorithms for Time-Varying Constrained Optimization

DOE PAGES

Simonetto, Andrea; Dall'Anese, Emiliano

2017-07-26

This article develops online algorithms to track solutions of time-varying constrained optimization problems. Particularly, resembling workhorse Kalman filtering-based approaches for dynamical systems, the proposed methods involve prediction-correction steps to provably track the trajectory of the optimal solutions of time-varying convex problems. The merits of existing prediction-correction methods have been shown for unconstrained problems and for setups where computing the inverse of the Hessian of the cost function is computationally affordable. This paper addresses the limitations of existing methods by tackling constrained problems and by designing first-order prediction steps that rely on the Hessian of the cost function (and do notmore » require the computation of its inverse). In addition, the proposed methods are shown to improve the convergence speed of existing prediction-correction methods when applied to unconstrained problems. Numerical simulations corroborate the analytical results and showcase performance and benefits of the proposed algorithms. A realistic application of the proposed method to real-time control of energy resources is presented.« less

Towards overcoming the Monte Carlo sign problem with tensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bañuls, Mari Carmen; Cichy, Krzysztof; Ignacio Cirac, J.; Jansen, Karl; Kühn, Stefan; Saito, Hana

2017-03-01

The study of lattice gauge theories with Monte Carlo simulations is hindered by the infamous sign problem that appears under certain circumstances, in particular at non-zero chemical potential. So far, there is no universal method to overcome this problem. However, recent years brought a new class of non-perturbative Hamiltonian techniques named tensor networks, where the sign problem is absent. In previous work, we have demonstrated that this approach, in particular matrix product states in 1+1 dimensions, can be used to perform precise calculations in a lattice gauge theory, the massless and massive Schwinger model. We have computed the mass spectrum of this theory, its thermal properties and real-time dynamics. In this work, we review these results and we extend our calculations to the case of two flavours and non-zero chemical potential. We are able to reliably reproduce known analytical results for this model, thus demonstrating that tensor networks can tackle the sign problem of a lattice gauge theory at finite density.

Dynamic node immunization for restraint of harmful information diffusion in social networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Dingda; Liao, Xiangwen; Shen, Huawei; Cheng, Xueqi; Chen, Guolong

2018-08-01

To restrain the spread of harmful information is crucial for the healthy and sustainable development of social networks. We address the problem of restraining the spread of harmful information by immunizing nodes in the networks. Previous works have developed methods based on the network topology or studied how to immunize nodes in the presence of initial infected nodes. These static methods, in which nodes are immunized at once, may have poor performance in the certain situation due to the dynamics of diffusion. To tackle this problem, we introduce a new dynamic immunization problem of immunizing nodes during the process of the diffusion in this paper. We formulate the problem and propose a novel heuristic algorithm by dealing with two sub-problems: (1) how to select a node to achieve the best immunization effect at the present time? (2) whether the selected node should be immunized right now? Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm through extensive experiments on various real datasets.

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

Simonetto, Andrea; Dall'Anese, Emiliano

This article develops online algorithms to track solutions of time-varying constrained optimization problems. Particularly, resembling workhorse Kalman filtering-based approaches for dynamical systems, the proposed methods involve prediction-correction steps to provably track the trajectory of the optimal solutions of time-varying convex problems. The merits of existing prediction-correction methods have been shown for unconstrained problems and for setups where computing the inverse of the Hessian of the cost function is computationally affordable. This paper addresses the limitations of existing methods by tackling constrained problems and by designing first-order prediction steps that rely on the Hessian of the cost function (and do notmore » require the computation of its inverse). In addition, the proposed methods are shown to improve the convergence speed of existing prediction-correction methods when applied to unconstrained problems. Numerical simulations corroborate the analytical results and showcase performance and benefits of the proposed algorithms. A realistic application of the proposed method to real-time control of energy resources is presented.« less

On-line diagnosis of defaults on squirrel cage motors using FEM

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

Bentounsi, A.; Nicolas, A.

1998-09-01

In industry, the predictive maintenance has become a strategic concept. Economic interest of on-line diagnosis of faults in electric machines gave rise to various researches in that field. This paper proposes a local approach to tackle the problem of breaking bars and end-rings of squirrel cage in induction machines based mainly on the signature of the local variables, such as the normal flux density. This allows a finer analysis, by use of a finite element based simulation.

An Analysis of Programming Beginners' Source Programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsuyama, Chieko; Nakashima, Toyoshiro; Ishii, Naohiro

The production of animations was made the subject of a university programming course in order to make students understand the process of program creation, and so that students could tackle programming with interest. In this paper, the formats and composition of the programs which students produced were investigated. As a result, it was found that there were a lot of problems related to such matters as how to use indent, how to apply comments and functions etc. for the format and the composition of the source codes.

[Sport as a profession: medical and social aspects].

PubMed

Izmerov, N F

2011-01-01

The author analyses possible use of methods and achievements of industrial medicine in solving problems of acme in sports. The article covers theoretic, methodologic and practical basis for possible integration of industrial medicine and sports medicine. Mechanisms of such interdisciplinary integration include current legal basis, scientific research (mostly, concept of occupational risk, norm and pathology concept, doctrine of preventive medicine, etc), practical experience accumulated in this country and abroad. Some aspects of public health preservation in contemporary Russia are also tackled.

JPRS Report, Near East and South Asia.

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-06-24

a brackish, dark blue river that gives off cafes that have turned over a new leaf these past few nauseating odors amidst the otherwise very well...tended years. greens. "All it took was for one cafe in town to turn over a new Professionals cite the same problems that are damaging leaf for all the...other cafes to follow it in turn and tackle the image of our tourist product. the job one after another." Moreover, the height of the deterioration of

Advancing Analytical and LES Based Predictions Of Turbulence Ingestion Noise in Complex Environments An Experimental Study

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-09-14

Application to Wind Turbines . Aviation 2015. Dallas. TX. 18. Glegg, S., A. Buono, J. Grant, F. Lachowski, W. Devenport and N. Alexander (2015). Sound...complicate the interaction. The over-arching goal of this work is to tackle the turbulence ingestion noise (TIN) problem in a carefully controlled... Wind tunnel tests were performed to study the sound generated by the ingestion of the wake, as well as the unsteady upwash correlations on the blades

Oncogenomics and the development of new cancer therapies.

PubMed

Strausberg, Robert L; Simpson, Andrew J G; Old, Lloyd J; Riggins, Gregory J

2004-05-27

Scientists have sequenced the human genome and identified most of its genes. Now it is time to use these genomic data, and the high-throughput technology developed to generate them, to tackle major health problems such as cancer. To accelerate our understanding of this disease and to produce targeted therapies, further basic mutational and functional genomic information is required. A systematic and coordinated approach, with the results freely available, should speed up progress. This will best be accomplished through an international academic and pharmaceutical oncogenomics initiative.

A current view of oncology in Argentina

PubMed Central

Huñis, Adrián Pablo

2016-01-01

Since 2010, with the creation of the National Cancer Institute, the Argentine Republic has been tackling the battle against cancer as a genuine public health problem. Today in Argentina, there is a “cancer policy” whose pillars are prevention, education, assistance, and research. In this article, we provide information about the incidence and mortality of the tumours most common in adults and children, and details of some epidemiological aspects and advances Argentina has achieved in the battle against cancer in the past decade. PMID:26913073

Genetic Algorithm Tuned Fuzzy Logic for Gliding Return Trajectories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burchett, Bradley T.

2003-01-01

The problem of designing and flying a trajectory for successful recovery of a reusable launch vehicle is tackled using fuzzy logic control with genetic algorithm optimization. The plant is approximated by a simplified three degree of freedom non-linear model. A baseline trajectory design and guidance algorithm consisting of several Mamdani type fuzzy controllers is tuned using a simple genetic algorithm. Preliminary results show that the performance of the overall system is shown to improve with genetic algorithm tuning.

Privacy and Access Control for IHE-Based Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katt, Basel; Breu, Ruth; Hafner, Micahel; Schabetsberger, Thomas; Mair, Richard; Wozak, Florian

Electronic Health Record (EHR) is the heart element of any e-health system, which aims at improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare through the use of information and communication technologies. The sensitivity of the data contained in the health record poses a great challenge to security. In this paper we propose a security architecture for EHR systems that are conform with IHE profiles. In this architecture we are tackling the problems of access control and privacy. Furthermore, a prototypical implementation of the proposed model is presented.

Are health care provider organizations ready to tackle diagnostic error? A survey of Leapfrog-participating hospitals.

PubMed

Newman-Toker, David E; Austin, J Matthew; Derk, Jordan; Danforth, Melissa; Graber, Mark L

2017-06-27

A 2015 National Academy of Medicine report on improving diagnosis in health care made recommendations for direct action by hospitals and health systems. Little is known about how health care provider organizations are addressing diagnostic safety/quality. This study is an anonymous online survey of safety professionals from US hospitals and health systems in July-August 2016. The survey was sent to those attending a Leapfrog Group webinar on misdiagnosis (n=188). The instrument was focused on knowledge, attitudes, and capability to address diagnostic errors at the institutional level. Overall, 61 (32%) responded, including community hospitals (42%), integrated health networks (25%), and academic centers (21%). Awareness was high, but commitment and capability were low (31% of leaders understand the problem; 28% have sufficient safety resources; and 25% have made diagnosis a top institutional safety priority). Ongoing efforts to improve diagnostic safety were sparse and mostly included root cause analysis and peer review feedback around diagnostic errors. The top three barriers to addressing diagnostic error were lack of awareness of the problem, lack of measures of diagnostic accuracy and error, and lack of feedback on diagnostic performance. The top two tools viewed as critically important for locally tackling the problem were routine feedback on diagnostic performance and culture change to emphasize diagnostic safety. Although hospitals and health systems appear to be aware of diagnostic errors as a major safety imperative, most organizations (even those that appear to be making a strong commitment to patient safety) are not yet doing much to improve diagnosis. Going forward, efforts to activate health care organizations will be essential to improving diagnostic safety.

Bridging the Particle Physics and Big Data Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pivarski, James

2017-09-01

For decades, particle physicists have developed custom software because the scale and complexity of our problems were unique. In recent years, however, the ``big data'' industry has begun to tackle similar problems, and has developed some novel solutions. Incorporating scientific Python libraries, Spark, TensorFlow, and machine learning tools into the physics software stack can improve abstraction, reliability, and in some cases performance. Perhaps more importantly, it can free physicists to concentrate on domain-specific problems. Building bridges isn't always easy, however. Physics software and open-source software from industry differ in many incidental ways and a few fundamental ways. I will show work from the DIANA-HEP project to streamline data flow from ROOT to Numpy and Spark, to incorporate ideas of functional programming into histogram aggregation, and to develop real-time, query-style manipulations of particle data.

Mental additions and verbal-domain interference in children with developmental dyscalculia.

PubMed

Mammarella, Irene C; Caviola, Sara; Cornoldi, Cesare; Lucangeli, Daniela

2013-09-01

This study examined the involvement of verbal and visuo-spatial domains in solving addition problems with carrying in a sample of children diagnosed with developmental dyscalculia (DD) divided into two groups: (i) those with DD alone and (ii) those with DD and dyslexia. Age and stage matched typically developing (TD) children were also studied. The addition problems were presented horizontally or vertically and associated with verbal or visuo-spatial information. Study results showed that DD children's performance on mental calculation tasks was more impaired when they tackled horizontally presented addition problems compared to vertically presented ones that are associated to verbal domain involvement. The performance pattern in the two DD groups was found to be similar. The theoretical, clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quantum-Enhanced Machine Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunjko, Vedran; Taylor, Jacob M.; Briegel, Hans J.

2016-09-01

The emerging field of quantum machine learning has the potential to substantially aid in the problems and scope of artificial intelligence. This is only enhanced by recent successes in the field of classical machine learning. In this work we propose an approach for the systematic treatment of machine learning, from the perspective of quantum information. Our approach is general and covers all three main branches of machine learning: supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning. While quantum improvements in supervised and unsupervised learning have been reported, reinforcement learning has received much less attention. Within our approach, we tackle the problem of quantum enhancements in reinforcement learning as well, and propose a systematic scheme for providing improvements. As an example, we show that quadratic improvements in learning efficiency, and exponential improvements in performance over limited time periods, can be obtained for a broad class of learning problems.

The development of community water supplies in Ghana*

PubMed Central

Ferguson, W. R. W.

1962-01-01

Ghana, with a population of 6 700 000, largely distributed in rural districts, is representative of many a country where the problem of water supply is associated with the construction of numerous small supplies for the villages and towns scattered over the whole area. This paper gives a general impression of the various methods in use for tackling the problem. Well-sinking, drilling, and pond-digging, and the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of methods, are described, and the problems met with under different geological conditions are considered. Details of the various systems for pumping the water from the source to the villages and towns are given. The important question of standardization, both in design and equipment, is dealt with, and reference is made to the operation of supplies and to the training of operatives. PMID:13892347

Analysis of a dc bus system with a nonlinear constant power load and its delayed feedback control.

PubMed

Konishi, Keiji; Sugitani, Yoshiki; Hara, Naoyuki

2014-02-01

This paper tackles a destabilizing problem of a direct-current (dc) bus system with constant power loads, which can be considered a fundamental problem of dc power grid networks. The present paper clarifies scenarios of the destabilization and applies the well-known delayed-feedback control to the stabilization of the destabilized bus system on the basis of nonlinear science. Further, we propose a systematic procedure for designing the delayed feedback controller. This controller can converge the bus voltage exactly on an unstable operating point without accurate information and can track it using tiny control energy even when a system parameter, such as the power consumption of the load, is slowly varied. These features demonstrate that delayed feedback control can be considered a strong candidate for solving the destabilizing problem.

Cooperative Learning: A Practical Application Strategy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Platte, Stephen A.

1991-01-01

Discusses a method of finding and implementing articles from among the sizeable amount of professional literature regarding cooperative learning. Describes the application of three teaching models (1) jigsaw, (2) group investigation, and (3) cybernetics that apply cooperative learning to elementary and secondary social studies instruction. (SG)

Severe and Catastrophic Neck Injuries Resulting from Tackle Football

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torg, Joseph S.; And Others

1977-01-01

Use of the spring-loaded blocking and tackling devices should be discontinued due to severe neck injuries resulting from their use; employment of the head and helmet as the primary assault weapon in blocking, tackling, and head butting should be condemned for the same reason. (MJB)

46 CFR 121.300 - Ground tackle and mooring lines.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 46 Shipping 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Ground tackle and mooring lines. 121.300 Section 121.300 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) SMALL PASSENGER VESSELS CARRYING MORE... MISCELLANEOUS SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT Mooring and Towing Equipment § 121.300 Ground tackle and mooring lines. A...

Higgs-portal assisted Higgs inflation with a sizeable tensor-to-scalar ratio

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

Kim, Jinsu; Ko, Pyungwon; Park, Wan-Il, E-mail: kimjinsu@kias.re.kr, E-mail: pko@kias.re.kr, E-mail: Wanil.Park@uv.es

We show that the Higgs portal interactions involving extra dark Higgs field can save generically the original Higgs inflation of the standard model (SM) from the problem of a deep non-SM vacuum in the SM Higgs potential. Specifically, we show that such interactions disconnect the top quark pole mass from inflationary observables and allow multi-dimensional parameter space to save the Higgs inflation, thanks to the additional parameters (the dark Higgs boson mass m {sub φ}, the mixing angle α between the SM Higgs H and dark Higgs Φ, and the mixed quartic coupling) affecting RG-running of the Higgs quartic coupling.more » The effect of Higgs portal interactions may lead to a larger tensor-to-scalar ratio, 0.08 ∼< r ∼< 0.1, by adjusting relevant parameters in wide ranges of α and m {sub φ}, some region of which can be probed at future colliders. Performing a numerical analysis we find an allowed region of parameters, matching the latest Planck data.« less

Primum Non Nocere: Organ Donation After Electrocution and Transplantation of Electricity-Damaged Livers: Report of 2 Cases.

PubMed

Giorgakis, E; Tedeschi, M; Bonaccorsi-Riani, E; Khorsandi, S E; Vilca-Melendez, H; Heaton, N

2016-10-01

Liver transplantation remains the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage liver disease. However, allograft availability continues to be a problem, and extending the criteria for organ acceptance is key. Deceased donors after electrical accidents, as well as electricity-traumatized allografts, are not common but should be considered suitable. This study describes 2 cases of heart-beating organ donors with electrical injury to the liver. In 1 case, the electric shock was the cause of death; in the second case, the injury was caused by defibrillation at organ procurement. Both allografts had sustained sizeable electrical injury, and both resulted in excellent early posttransplant outcomes. These cases demonstrate that electrocution is not a contraindication to donation and that electricity-traumatized allografts may remain transplantable after careful assessment. Education of all staff in the management of such donors can optimize utility of such allografts. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

‘Recovery work’ and ‘magic’ among long-term mental health service-users

PubMed Central

Laws, Jennifer

2013-01-01

Based on an extended period of qualitative research with mental health service-users in north-east England, this article considers the various forms of ‘magical work’ and ‘recovery work’ that emerge in the lives of people living with severe mental health problems. Given the now sizeable body of literature which seeks to problematize traditional conceptual boundaries of work, the article asks to what extent these hidden and unusual work-forms might also be considered legitimate members of the category. Rather than argue for the expansion of the construct to accommodate these activities, the paper attempts simply to problematize the extent to which so-called ‘mad’ forms of work are irresolvably different to more conventional forms of occupation. In challenging notions of the psychiatric patient as inevitably inactive, new vocabularies for service-user work are explored. Concluding remarks are also directed to recent policy debates concerning ‘back-to-work’ welfare reform for long-term out of work service-users. PMID:24223439

Baccalaureate Success of Transfers and Rising 4-Year College Juniors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melguizo, Tatiana; Dowd, Alicia C.

2009-01-01

Background/Context: A longstanding debate continues concerning whether community colleges democratize education by expanding enrollment or divert students from attaining a bachelor's degree. The extant evidence is contradictory, but recent findings suggest that community colleges are serving to democratize education without a sizeable diversion…

Does the Choice of Introductory Microeconomics Textbook Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pyne, Derek

2007-01-01

The author examines the effects of different introductory microeconomics textbooks on student performance in subsequent economics courses (specifically, Intermediate Microeconomics I and Money and Banking). In some cases, the effects are significant and sizeable. There is also evidence of other variables affecting student performance in later…

Advance price or purchase commitments to create markets for treatments for diseases of poverty: lessons from three policies.

PubMed Central

Towse, Adrian; Kettler, Hannah

2005-01-01

New drugs and vaccines are needed for tackling diseases of poverty in low- and middle-income countries. The lack of effective demand or market for these products translates into insufficient investment being made in research and development to meet the need for them. Many have advocated cost-reducing (push) and market-enhancing (pull) incentives to tackle this problem. Advance price or purchase commitments (APPCs) funded by international agencies and governments offer one way forward. This paper looks at design issues for APPCs for drugs and vaccines for diseases of poverty drawing on experience and lessons from three case studies: the introduction of the meningitis C vaccine in the United Kingdom; the Orphan Drug Act (ODA) in the United States of America (US); and the newly legislated US Project BioShield for bioterrorist interventions. Our key conclusion is that that APPCs have the potential to be a powerful tool and should be tried. The correct structure and design may only be determined through the process of taking action to set one up. PMID:15868022

The role of healthcare strategies in controlling antibiotic resistance.

PubMed

Aziz, Ann-Marie

In an interview in March 2013, the Chief Medical Officer described antibiotic resistance as a 'ticking time bomb' and ranked it along with terrorism on a list of threats to the nation. Her report Infections and the Rise of Antimicrobial Resistance (Department of Health, 2011) highlighted that, while a new infectious disease has been discovered nearly every year over the past three decades, there have been very few new antibiotics developed, leaving our armoury nearly empty. Antibiotic resistance is a universal problem that needs to be tackled by a wide variety of strategies and players. Our approach to tackling resistance to antibiotic agents must therefore also be dynamic. As well as reducing environmental use, we also need to lower antibiotic use in the healthcare setting. Healthcare workers have a huge role to play in combating antibiotic resistance. This article focuses on several issues related to antibiotic resistance, including antibiotic modes of action and the properties that confer resistance on bacteria. It includes information on antibiotic usage and describes current healthcare strategies we can adopt to help reduce the development of resistance.

Perceived quality in a dementia unit: patients' caregivers as information providers.

PubMed

López-Picazo, J J; de Dios Cánovas-García, J; Antúnez, C; Marín, J; Antequera, M M; Vivancos, L; Martínez, B; Legaz, A; Navarro, D; Leal, M

2016-10-22

Dementia units (DU) provide comprehensive and specialised care to patients with dementia. However, assessment in these units normally focuses on patient management. The aim of this study was to determine satisfaction of the caregivers of patients managed in a DU and how they rated DU care. We created a self-administered questionnaire which was completed by 236 caregivers visiting the DU in 2015. The questionnaire included 6 dimensions (accessibility, organisation, professionalism, relationship with staff, information, and facilities); data were analysed using problem rates. A total of 53.4% caregivers completed the questionnaire; most were women, patients' spouses, or first-degree relatives. The overall problem rates was 15.0% (95% CI, 13.9-16.1), with sizeable differences between dimensions: from 0.1% (95% CI, 0.0-0.4) for 'relationship with staff' and 'professionalism' to 49.3% (95% CI, 45.4-53.2) for 'information'. Waiting times over 30minutes were perceived as excessive. Information problems were not directly related to patient management. Satisfaction was scored 8.29/10 (median 8; SD 1.45); 77.3% (95% CI, 69.8-74.8) of respondents were highly satisfied. Ninety-nine percent of the caregivers stated that they would recommend the DU. This questionnaire provides interesting data on care quality as perceived by patients' caregivers. Our results have allowed us to identify problems and implement corrective actions. Our questionnaire has proved to be a useful tool for evaluating and improving care quality in DUs. Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

The use of multi-criteria decision analysis to tackle waste management problems: a literature review.

PubMed

Achillas, Charisios; Moussiopoulos, Nicolas; Karagiannidis, Avraam; Banias, Georgias; Perkoulidis, George

2013-02-01

Problems in waste management have become more and more complex during recent decades. The increasing volumes of waste produced and social environmental consciousness present prominent drivers for environmental managers towards the achievement of a sustainable waste management scheme. However, in practice, there are many factors and influences - often mutually conflicting - criteria for finding solutions in real-life applications. This paper presents a review of the literature on multi-criteria decision aiding in waste management problems for all reported waste streams. Despite limitations, which are clearly stated, most of the work published in this field is reviewed. The present review aims to provide environmental managers and decision-makers with a thorough list of practical applications of the multi-criteria decision analysis techniques that are used to solve real-life waste management problems, as well as the criteria that are mostly employed in such applications according to the nature of the problem under study. Moreover, the paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of using multi-criteria decision analysis techniques in waste management problems in comparison to other available alternatives.

Total-variation based velocity inversion with Bregmanized operator splitting algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zand, Toktam; Gholami, Ali

2018-04-01

Many problems in applied geophysics can be formulated as a linear inverse problem. The associated problems, however, are large-scale and ill-conditioned. Therefore, regularization techniques are needed to be employed for solving them and generating a stable and acceptable solution. We consider numerical methods for solving such problems in this paper. In order to tackle the ill-conditioning of the problem we use blockiness as a prior information of the subsurface parameters and formulate the problem as a constrained total variation (TV) regularization. The Bregmanized operator splitting (BOS) algorithm as a combination of the Bregman iteration and the proximal forward backward operator splitting method is developed to solve the arranged problem. Two main advantages of this new algorithm are that no matrix inversion is required and that a discrepancy stopping criterion is used to stop the iterations, which allow efficient solution of large-scale problems. The high performance of the proposed TV regularization method is demonstrated using two different experiments: 1) velocity inversion from (synthetic) seismic data which is based on Born approximation, 2) computing interval velocities from RMS velocities via Dix formula. Numerical examples are presented to verify the feasibility of the proposed method for high-resolution velocity inversion.

A decentralized and onsite wastewater management course: bringing together global concerns and practical pedagogy.

PubMed

Gaulke, L S; Borgford-Parnell, J L; Stensel, H D

2008-01-01

This paper reports on the design, implementation, and results of a course focused on decentralized and onsite wastewater treatment in global contexts. Problem-based learning was the primary pedagogical method, with which students tackled real-world problems and designed systems to meet the needs of diverse populations. Both learning and course evaluations demonstrated that the course was successful in fulfilling learning objectives, increasing student design skills, and raising awareness of global applications. Based on this experience a list of recommendations was created for co-developing and team-teaching multidisciplinary design courses. These recommendations include ideas for aligning student and teacher goals, overcoming barriers to effective group-work, and imbedding continuous course assessments. Copyright IWA Publishing 2008.

Sentence-Level Attachment Prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albakour, M.-Dyaa; Kruschwitz, Udo; Lucas, Simon

Attachment prediction is the task of automatically identifying email messages that should contain an attachment. This can be useful to tackle the problem of sending out emails but forgetting to include the relevant attachment (something that happens all too often). A common Information Retrieval (IR) approach in analyzing documents such as emails is to treat the entire document as a bag of words. Here we propose a finer-grained analysis to address the problem. We aim at identifying individual sentences within an email that refer to an attachment. If we detect any such sentence, we predict that the email should have an attachment. Using part of the Enron corpus for evaluation we find that our finer-grained approach outperforms previously reported document-level attachment prediction in similar evaluation settings.

Dynamic sensor management of dispersed and disparate sensors for tracking resident space objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El-Fallah, A.; Zatezalo, A.; Mahler, R.; Mehra, R. K.; Donatelli, D.

2008-04-01

Dynamic sensor management of dispersed and disparate sensors for space situational awareness presents daunting scientific and practical challenges as it requires optimal and accurate maintenance of all Resident Space Objects (RSOs) of interest. We demonstrate an approach to the space-based sensor management problem by extending a previously developed and tested sensor management objective function, the Posterior Expected Number of Targets (PENT), to disparate and dispersed sensors. This PENT extension together with observation models for various sensor platforms, and a Probability Hypothesis Density Particle Filter (PHD-PF) tracker provide a powerful tool for tackling this challenging problem. We demonstrate the approach using simulations for tracking RSOs by a Space Based Visible (SBV) sensor and ground based radars.

How we tackled the problem of assessing humanities, social and behavioural sciences in medical education.

PubMed

Goodwin, Dawn; Machin, Laura

2016-01-01

Assessment serves as an important motivation for learning. However, multiple choice and short answer question formats are often considered unsatisfactory for assessment of medical humanities, and the social and behavioural sciences. Little consensus exists as to what might constitute 'best' assessment practice. What we did: We designed an assessment format closely aligned to the curricular approach of problem-based learning which allows for greater assessment of students' understanding, depth of knowledge and interpretation, rather than recall of rote learning. The educational impact of scenario-based assessment has been profound. Students reported changing their approach to PBL, independent learning and exam preparation by taking a less reductionist, more interpretative approach to the topics studied.

The discovery of the causes of leprosy: A computational analysis

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

Corruble, V.; Ganascia, J.G.

1996-12-31

The role played by the inductive inference has been studied extensively in the field of Scientific Discovery. The work presented here tackles the problem of induction in medical research. The discovery of the causes of leprosy is analyzed and simulated using computational means. An inductive algorithm is proposed, which is successful in simulating some essential steps in the progress of the understanding of the disease. It also allows us to simulate the false reasoning of previous centuries through the introduction of some medical a priori inherited form archaic medicine. Corroborating previous research, this problem illustrates the importance of the socialmore » and cultural environment on the way the inductive inference is performed in medicine.« less

Homogeneous-heterogeneous reactions in curved channel with porous medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayat, T.; Ayub, Sadia; Alsaedi, A.

2018-06-01

Purpose of the present investigation is to examine the peristaltic flow through porous medium in a curved conduit. Problem is modeled for incompressible electrically conducting Ellis fluid. Influence of porous medium is tackled via modified Darcy's law. The considered model utilizes homogeneous-heterogeneous reactions with equal diffusivities for reactant and autocatalysis. Constitutive equations are formulated in the presence of viscous dissipation. Channel walls are compliant in nature. Governing equations are modeled and simplified under the assumptions of small Reynolds number and large wavelength. Graphical results for velocity, temperature, heat transfer coefficient and homogeneous-heterogeneous reaction parameters are examined for the emerging parameters entering into the problem. Results reveal an activation in both homogenous-heterogenous reaction effect and heat transfer rate with increasing curvature of the channel.

Realistic Real-Time Outdoor Rendering in Augmented Reality

PubMed Central

Kolivand, Hoshang; Sunar, Mohd Shahrizal

2014-01-01

Realistic rendering techniques of outdoor Augmented Reality (AR) has been an attractive topic since the last two decades considering the sizeable amount of publications in computer graphics. Realistic virtual objects in outdoor rendering AR systems require sophisticated effects such as: shadows, daylight and interactions between sky colours and virtual as well as real objects. A few realistic rendering techniques have been designed to overcome this obstacle, most of which are related to non real-time rendering. However, the problem still remains, especially in outdoor rendering. This paper proposed a much newer, unique technique to achieve realistic real-time outdoor rendering, while taking into account the interaction between sky colours and objects in AR systems with respect to shadows in any specific location, date and time. This approach involves three main phases, which cover different outdoor AR rendering requirements. Firstly, sky colour was generated with respect to the position of the sun. Second step involves the shadow generation algorithm, Z-Partitioning: Gaussian and Fog Shadow Maps (Z-GaF Shadow Maps). Lastly, a technique to integrate sky colours and shadows through its effects on virtual objects in the AR system, is introduced. The experimental results reveal that the proposed technique has significantly improved the realism of real-time outdoor AR rendering, thus solving the problem of realistic AR systems. PMID:25268480

Realistic real-time outdoor rendering in augmented reality.

PubMed

Kolivand, Hoshang; Sunar, Mohd Shahrizal

2014-01-01

Realistic rendering techniques of outdoor Augmented Reality (AR) has been an attractive topic since the last two decades considering the sizeable amount of publications in computer graphics. Realistic virtual objects in outdoor rendering AR systems require sophisticated effects such as: shadows, daylight and interactions between sky colours and virtual as well as real objects. A few realistic rendering techniques have been designed to overcome this obstacle, most of which are related to non real-time rendering. However, the problem still remains, especially in outdoor rendering. This paper proposed a much newer, unique technique to achieve realistic real-time outdoor rendering, while taking into account the interaction between sky colours and objects in AR systems with respect to shadows in any specific location, date and time. This approach involves three main phases, which cover different outdoor AR rendering requirements. Firstly, sky colour was generated with respect to the position of the sun. Second step involves the shadow generation algorithm, Z-Partitioning: Gaussian and Fog Shadow Maps (Z-GaF Shadow Maps). Lastly, a technique to integrate sky colours and shadows through its effects on virtual objects in the AR system, is introduced. The experimental results reveal that the proposed technique has significantly improved the realism of real-time outdoor AR rendering, thus solving the problem of realistic AR systems.

An unmanned ground vehicle for landmine remediation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wasson, Steven R.; Guilberto, Jose; Ogg, Wade; Wedeward, Kevin; Bruder, Stephen; El-Osery, Aly

2004-09-01

Anti-tank (AT) landmines slow down and endanger military advances and present sizeable humanitarian problems. The remediation of these mines by direct human intervention is both dangerous and costly. The Intelligent Systems & Robotics Group (ISRG) at New Mexico Tech has provided a partial solution to this problem by developing an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) to remediate these mines without endangering human lives. This paper presents an overview of the design and operation of this UGV. Current results and future work are also described herein. To initiate the remediation process the UGV is given the GPS coordinates of previously detected landmines. Once the UGV autonomously navigates to an acceptable proximity of the landmine, a remote operator acquires control over a wireless network link using a joystick on a base station. Utilizing two cameras mounted on the UGV, the operator is able to accurately position the UGV directly over the landmine. The UGV houses a self-contained drill system equipped with its own processing resources, sensors, and actuators. The drill system deploys a neutralizing device over the landmine to neutralize it. One such device, developed by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), employs incendiary materials to melt through the container of the landmine and slowly burn the explosive material, thereby safely and remotely disabling the landmine.

Chagas disease as a cause of heart failure and ventricular arrhythmias in patients long removed from endemic areas: an emerging problem in Europe.

PubMed

Vannucchi, Vieri; Tomberli, Benedetta; Zammarchi, Lorenzo; Fornaro, Alessandra; Castelli, Gabriele; Pieralli, Filippo; Berni, Andrea; Yacoub, Sophie; Bartoloni, Alessandro; Olivotto, Iacopo

2015-12-01

Chagas disease is a parasitic disease caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. In endemic areas (South and Central America), Chagas disease represents a relevant public health issue, and is the most frequent cause of cardiomyopathy. In nonendemic areas, such as Europe, Chagas disease represents an emerging problem following the establishment of sizeable communities from Brazil and Bolivia. Chagas cardiomyopathy represents the most frequent and serious complication of chronic Chagas disease, affecting about 20-30% of patients, potentially leading to heart failure, arrhythmias, thromboembolism, stroke and sudden death. Because late complications of Chagas disease may develop several years or even decades after the acute infection, it may be extremely challenging to reach the correct diagnosis in patients long removed from the countries of origin. We report two examples of Chagas cardiomyopathy in South American women permanently residing in Italy for more than 20 years, presenting with cardiac manifestations ranging from left ventricular dysfunction and heart failure to isolated ventricular arrhythmias. The present review emphasizes that Chagas disease should be considered as a potential diagnosis in patients from endemic areas presenting with 'idiopathic' cardiac manifestations, even when long removed from their country of origin, with potential implications for treatment and control of Chagas disease transmission.

Benefits of genetically modified crops for the poor: household income, nutrition, and health.

PubMed

Qaim, Matin

2010-11-30

The potential impacts of genetically modified (GM) crops on income, poverty and nutrition in developing countries continue to be the subject of public controversy. Here, a review of the evidence is given. As an example of a first-generation GM technology, the effects of insect-resistant Bt cotton are analysed. Bt cotton has already been adopted by millions of small-scale farmers, in India, China, and South Africa among others. On average, farmers benefit from insecticide savings, higher effective yields and sizeable income gains. Insights from India suggest that Bt cotton is employment generating and poverty reducing. As an example of a second-generation technology, the likely impacts of beta-carotene-rich Golden Rice are analysed from an ex ante perspective. Vitamin A deficiency is a serious nutritional problem, causing multiple adverse health outcomes. Simulations for India show that Golden Rice could reduce related health problems significantly, preventing up to 40,000 child deaths every year. These examples clearly demonstrate that GM crops can contribute to poverty reduction and food security in developing countries. To realise such social benefits on a larger scale requires more public support for research targeted to the poor, as well as more efficient regulatory and technology delivery systems. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Creole Carpentry in 1800 -- Building Practices and Carpenter's Tools that created Alexandria's Kent Plantation House

Treesearch

N.H. Sand; P. Koch

1975-01-01

It is the year 1796 or thereabouts. Louisiana is a Spanish colony with French traditions and culture. Pierre Baillio II, of a prominent French family, has a sizeable grant of land along the Red River near a small town called El Rapido.

Affinity purification and mass spectrometry: an attractive choice to investigate protein-protein interactions in plant immunity

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Affinity purification of protein complexes from biological tissues, followed by liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry (AP-MS/MS), has ballooned in recent years due to sizeable increases in nucleic acid sequence data essential for interpreting mass spectra, improvements in affinity purifica...

Youth Reproductive & Sexual Health in Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sampson, Melodi

2010-01-01

Nearly one third of Nigeria's total population of 148.1 million is between the ages of 10 and 24. Nigerian adolescents' sizeable share of the population makes them integral to the country's social, political and economic development. Nigeria's development is compromised by the sexual and reproductive health issues afflicting its youth. Lack of…

The Effect of Community Linguistic Isolation on Language-Minority Student Achievement in High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drake, Timothy Arthur

2014-01-01

Research on language-minority student outcomes has revealed sizeable and persistent achievement gaps. The reasons for these gaps are often closely linked with other factors related to underperformance, including generational status, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Using sociocultural second-language acquisition theories and community…

Balloon logging with the inverted skyline

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mosher, C. F.

1975-01-01

There is a gap in aerial logging techniques that has to be filled. The need for a simple, safe, sizeable system has to be developed before aerial logging will become effective and accepted in the logging industry. This paper presents such a system designed on simple principles with realistic cost and ecological benefits.

Data-driven diagnostics of terrestrial carbon dynamics over North America

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The exchange of carbon dioxide is a key measure of ecosystem metabolism and a critical intersection between the terrestrial biosphere and the Earth's climate. Despite the general agreement that the terrestrial ecosystems in North America provide a sizeable carbon sink, the size and distribution of t...

The Role of Response Confusion in Proactive Interference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dillon, Richard F.; Thomas, Heather

1975-01-01

In two experiments using the Brown-Peterson memory paradigm, instructions to guess had small effects on recall, but sizeable effects on incidence of prior list intrustion. However, results indicate that proactive interference is primarily the result of inability to generate correct items, rather than confusion between present and previous items.…

78 FR 75215 - Qualified Mortgage Definition for HUD Insured and Guaranteed Single Family Mortgages

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-11

... home financing under programs designed for low- and moderate-income individuals and families, and... Benefits HUD's final rule, in effect, reclassifies a sizeable group (about 19 percent) of Title II loans... definition, HUD clarifies for commenters that housing counseling fees and rehabilitation consultant fees...

High-throughput genotyping of hop (Humulus lupulus L.) utilising diversity arrays technology (DArT)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Implementation of molecular methods in hop breeding is dependent on the availability of sizeable numbers of polymorphic markers and a comprehensive understanding of genetic variation. Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) is a high-throughput cost-effective method for the discovery of large numbers of...

Important science--it's all about the SPIN.

PubMed

Casadevall, Arturo; Fang, Ferric C

2009-10-01

The importance of a scientific finding can be difficult to ascertain because it requires both subjective judgment and foresight. We propose criteria, based upon whether a discovery is sizeable (S), practical (P), integrated (I), and new (N), that can be used individually or collectively to systematically assess the importance of a finding.

Corporate Disguises in Medical Science: Dodging the Interest Repertoire

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sismondo, Sergio

2011-01-01

Roughly 40% of the sizeable medical research and literature on recently approved drugs is "ghost managed" by the pharmaceutical industry and its agents. Research is performed and articles are written by companies and their agents, though apparently independent academics serve as authors on the publications. Similarly, the industry hires academic…

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Science

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

Aiken, Allison; Dubey, Manvendra

Cloaking urban areas and wildfire zones, tiny smoke particles suspended in the atmosphere have a sizeable effect on our climate. But the exact effect of many of these aerosols-such as how much sunlight they absorb, thus warming Earth, or reflecting back to space and so cooling Earth-is very uncertain.

Bootstrapping the Syntactic Bootstrapper: Probabilistic Labeling of Prosodic Phrases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutman, Ariel; Dautriche, Isabelle; Crabbé, Benoît; Christophe, Anne

2015-01-01

The "syntactic bootstrapping" hypothesis proposes that syntactic structure provides children with cues for learning the meaning of novel words. In this article, we address the question of how children might start acquiring some aspects of syntax before they possess a sizeable lexicon. The study presents two models of early syntax…

Motivational Triggers of Faculty Members: The Process of Teaching Practice Transformation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanchez, Julie A.

2011-01-01

In recent years, there have been sizeable shifts in higher education. These shifts include more diverse student populations, advancements in pedagogy, and research progress within discipline-specific knowledge (Austin, 2002; Braxton, 2006; Gibbs & Coffey, 2004; Sunal et al, 2001; Trigwell & Prosser, 1996). These changes along with student…

Collapsed scrums and collision tackles: what is the injury risk?

PubMed

Roberts, Simon P; Trewartha, Grant; England, Mike; Stokes, Keith A

2015-04-01

To establish the propensity for specific contact events to cause injury in rugby union. Medical staff at participating English community-level rugby clubs reported any injury resulting in the absence for one match or more from the day of the injury during the 2009/2010 (n=46), 2010/2011 (n=67) and 2011/2012 (n=76) seasons. Injury severity was defined as the number of matches missed. Thirty community rugby matches were filmed and the number of contact events (tackles, collision tackles, rucks, mauls, lineouts and scrums) recorded. Of 370 (95% CI 364 to 378) contact events per match, 141 (137 to 145) were tackles, 115 (111 to 119) were rucks and 32 (30 to 33) were scrums. Tackles resulted in the greatest propensity for injury (2.3 (2.2 to 2.4) injuries/1000 events) and the greatest severity (16 (15 to 17) weeks missed/1000 events). Collision tackles (illegal tackles involving a shoulder charge) had a propensity for injury of 15 (12.4 to 18.3) injuries/1000 events and severity was 92 (75 to 112) weeks missed/1000 events, both of which were higher than any other event. Additional scrum analysis showed that only 5% of all scrums collapsed, but the propensity for injury was four times higher (2.9 (1.5 to 5.4) injuries/1000 events) and the severity was six times greater (22 (12 to 42) weeks missed/1000 events) than for non-collapsed scrums. Injury prevention in the tackle should focus on technique with strict enforcement of existing laws for illegal collision tackles. The scrum is a relatively controllable event and further attempts should be made to reduce the frequency of scrum collapse. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Evaluating behavioral skills training to teach safe tackling skills to youth football players.

PubMed

Tai, Sharayah S M; Miltenberger, Raymond G

2017-10-01

With concussion rates on the rise for football players, there is a need for further research to increase skills and decrease injuries. Behavioral skills training is effective in teaching a wide variety of skills but has yet to be studied in the sports setting. We evaluated behavioral skills training to teach safer tackling techniques to six participants from a Pop Warner football team. Safer tackling techniques increased during practice and generalized to games for the two participants who had opportunities to tackle in games. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

All-Optical Implementation of the Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

PubMed Central

Hu, Wenchao; Wu, Kan; Shum, Perry Ping; Zheludev, Nikolay I.; Soci, Cesare

2016-01-01

We report all-optical implementation of the optimization algorithm for the famous “ant colony” problem. Ant colonies progressively optimize pathway to food discovered by one of the ants through identifying the discovered route with volatile chemicals (pheromones) secreted on the way back from the food deposit. Mathematically this is an important example of graph optimization problem with dynamically changing parameters. Using an optical network with nonlinear waveguides to represent the graph and a feedback loop, we experimentally show that photons traveling through the network behave like ants that dynamically modify the environment to find the shortest pathway to any chosen point in the graph. This proof-of-principle demonstration illustrates how transient nonlinearity in the optical system can be exploited to tackle complex optimization problems directly, on the hardware level, which may be used for self-routing of optical signals in transparent communication networks and energy flow in photonic systems. PMID:27222098

A general neurologist's perspective on the urgent need to apply resilience thinking to the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Pomorska, Grazyna; Ockene, Judith K

2017-11-01

The goal of this article was to look at the problem of Alzheimer's disease (AD) through the lens of a socioecological resilience-thinking framework to help expand our view of the prevention and treatment of AD. This serious and complex public health problem requires a holistic systems approach. We present the view that resilience thinking, a theoretical framework that offers multidisciplinary approaches in ecology and natural resource management to solve environmental problems, can be applied to the prevention and treatment of AD. Resilience thinking explains a natural process that occurs in all complex systems in response to stressful challenges. The brain is a complex system, much like an ecosystem, and AD is a disturbance (allostatic overload) within the ecosystem of the brain. Resilience thinking gives us guidance, direction, and ideas about how to comprehensively prevent and treat AD and tackle the AD epidemic.

Visualizing Internet routing changes.

PubMed

Lad, Mohit; Massey, Dan; Zhang, Lixia

2006-01-01

Today's Internet provides a global data delivery service to millions of end users and routing protocols play a critical role in this service. It is important to be able to identify and diagnose any problems occurring in Internet routing. However, the Internet's sheer size makes this task difficult. One cannot easily extract out the most important or relevant routing information from the large amounts of data collected from multiple routers. To tackle this problem, we have developed Link-Rank, a tool to visualize Internet routing changes at the global scale. Link-Rank weighs links in a topological graph by the number of routes carried over each link and visually captures changes in link weights in the form of a topological graph with adjustable size. Using Link-Rank, network operators can easily observe important routing changes from massive amounts of routing data, discover otherwise unnoticed routing problems, understand the impact of topological events, and infer root causes of observed routing changes.

Ant Colony Optimization With Local Search for Dynamic Traveling Salesman Problems.

PubMed

Mavrovouniotis, Michalis; Muller, Felipe M; Yang, Shengxiang

2016-06-13

For a dynamic traveling salesman problem (DTSP), the weights (or traveling times) between two cities (or nodes) may be subject to changes. Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have proved to be powerful methods to tackle such problems due to their adaptation capabilities. It has been shown that the integration of local search operators can significantly improve the performance of ACO. In this paper, a memetic ACO algorithm, where a local search operator (called unstring and string) is integrated into ACO, is proposed to address DTSPs. The best solution from ACO is passed to the local search operator, which removes and inserts cities in such a way that improves the solution quality. The proposed memetic ACO algorithm is designed to address both symmetric and asymmetric DTSPs. The experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed memetic algorithm for addressing DTSPs in comparison with other state-of-the-art algorithms.

Determining the number of fingers in the lifting Hele-Shaw problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miranda, Jose; Dias, Eduardo

2013-11-01

The lifting Hele-Shaw cell flow is a variation of the celebrated radial viscous fingering problem for which the upper cell plate is lifted uniformly at a specified rate. This procedure causes the formation of intricate interfacial patterns. Most theoretical studies determine the total number of emerging fingers by maximizing the linear growth rate, but this generates discrepancies between theory and experiments. In this work, we tackle the number of fingers selection problem in the lifting Hele-Shaw cell by employing the recently proposed maximum-amplitude criterion. Our linear stability analysis accounts for the action of capillary, viscous normal stresses, and wetting effects, as well as the cell confinement. The comparison of our results with very precise laboratory measurements for the total number of fingers shows a significantly improved agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental data. We thank CNPq (Brazilian Sponsor) for financial support.

Metaheuristic optimisation methods for approximate solving of singular boundary value problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadollah, Ali; Yadav, Neha; Gao, Kaizhou; Su, Rong

2017-07-01

This paper presents a novel approximation technique based on metaheuristics and weighted residual function (WRF) for tackling singular boundary value problems (BVPs) arising in engineering and science. With the aid of certain fundamental concepts of mathematics, Fourier series expansion, and metaheuristic optimisation algorithms, singular BVPs can be approximated as an optimisation problem with boundary conditions as constraints. The target is to minimise the WRF (i.e. error function) constructed in approximation of BVPs. The scheme involves generational distance metric for quality evaluation of the approximate solutions against exact solutions (i.e. error evaluator metric). Four test problems including two linear and two non-linear singular BVPs are considered in this paper to check the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The optimisation task is performed using three different optimisers including the particle swarm optimisation, the water cycle algorithm, and the harmony search algorithm. Optimisation results obtained show that the suggested technique can be successfully applied for approximate solving of singular BVPs.

New Approaches to HSCT Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schrage, Daniel P.; Craig, James I.; Fulton, Robert E.; Mistree, Farrokh

1999-01-01

New approaches to MDO have been developed and demonstrated during this project on a particularly challenging aeronautics problem- HSCT Aeroelastic Wing Design. To tackle this problem required the integration of resources and collaboration from three Georgia Tech laboratories: ASDL, SDL, and PPRL, along with close coordination and participation from industry. Its success can also be contributed to the close interaction and involvement of fellows from the NASA Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization (MAO) program, which was going on in parallel, and provided additional resources to work the very complex, multidisciplinary problem, along with the methods being developed. The development of the Integrated Design Engineering Simulator (IDES) and its initial demonstration is a necessary first step in transitioning the methods and tools developed to larger industrial sized problems of interest. It also provides a framework for the implementation and demonstration of the methodology. Attachment: Appendix A - List of publications. Appendix B - Year 1 report. Appendix C - Year 2 report. Appendix D - Year 3 report. Appendix E - accompanying CDROM.

Bayesian peak picking for NMR spectra.

PubMed

Cheng, Yichen; Gao, Xin; Liang, Faming

2014-02-01

Protein structure determination is a very important topic in structural genomics, which helps people to understand varieties of biological functions such as protein-protein interactions, protein-DNA interactions and so on. Nowadays, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has often been used to determine the three-dimensional structures of protein in vivo. This study aims to automate the peak picking step, the most important and tricky step in NMR structure determination. We propose to model the NMR spectrum by a mixture of bivariate Gaussian densities and use the stochastic approximation Monte Carlo algorithm as the computational tool to solve the problem. Under the Bayesian framework, the peak picking problem is casted as a variable selection problem. The proposed method can automatically distinguish true peaks from false ones without preprocessing the data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort in the literature that tackles the peak picking problem for NMR spectrum data using Bayesian method. Copyright © 2013. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd.

The Strength of the Strongest Ties in Collaborative Problem Solving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Montjoye, Yves-Alexandre; Stopczynski, Arkadiusz; Shmueli, Erez; Pentland, Alex; Lehmann, Sune

2014-06-01

Complex problem solving in science, engineering, and business has become a highly collaborative endeavor. Teams of scientists or engineers collaborate on projects using their social networks to gather new ideas and feedback. Here we bridge the literature on team performance and information networks by studying teams' problem solving abilities as a function of both their within-team networks and their members' extended networks. We show that, while an assigned team's performance is strongly correlated with its networks of expressive and instrumental ties, only the strongest ties in both networks have an effect on performance. Both networks of strong ties explain more of the variance than other factors, such as measured or self-evaluated technical competencies, or the personalities of the team members. In fact, the inclusion of the network of strong ties renders these factors non-significant in the statistical analysis. Our results have consequences for the organization of teams of scientists, engineers, and other knowledge workers tackling today's most complex problems.

The strength of the strongest ties in collaborative problem solving.

PubMed

de Montjoye, Yves-Alexandre; Stopczynski, Arkadiusz; Shmueli, Erez; Pentland, Alex; Lehmann, Sune

2014-06-20

Complex problem solving in science, engineering, and business has become a highly collaborative endeavor. Teams of scientists or engineers collaborate on projects using their social networks to gather new ideas and feedback. Here we bridge the literature on team performance and information networks by studying teams' problem solving abilities as a function of both their within-team networks and their members' extended networks. We show that, while an assigned team's performance is strongly correlated with its networks of expressive and instrumental ties, only the strongest ties in both networks have an effect on performance. Both networks of strong ties explain more of the variance than other factors, such as measured or self-evaluated technical competencies, or the personalities of the team members. In fact, the inclusion of the network of strong ties renders these factors non-significant in the statistical analysis. Our results have consequences for the organization of teams of scientists, engineers, and other knowledge workers tackling today's most complex problems.

Reducing corruption in a Mexican medical school: impact assessment across two cross-sectional surveys

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Corruption pervades educational and other institutions worldwide and medical schools are not exempt. Empirical evidence about levels and types of corruption in medical schools is sparse. We conducted surveys in 2000 and 2007 in the medical school of the Autonomous University of Guerrero in Mexico to document student perceptions and experience of corruption and to support the medical school to take actions to tackle corruption. Methods In both 2000 and 2007 medical students completed a self-administered questionnaire in the classroom without the teacher present. The questionnaire asked about unofficial payments for admission to medical school, for passing an examination and for administrative procedures. We examined factors related to the experience of corruption in multivariate analysis. Focus groups of students discussed the quantitative findings. Results In 2000, 6% of 725 responding students had paid unofficially to obtain entry into the medical school; this proportion fell to 1.6% of the 436 respondents in 2007. In 2000, 15% of students reported having paid a bribe to pass an examination, not significantly different from the 18% who reported this in 2007. In 2007, students were significantly more likely to have bribed a teacher to pass an examination if they were in the fourth year, if they had been subjected to sexual harassment or political pressure, and if they had been in the university for five years or more. Students resented the need to make unofficial payments and suggested tackling the problem by disciplining corrupt teachers. The university administration made several changes to the system of admissions and examinations in the medical school, based on the findings of the 2000 survey. Conclusion The fall in the rate of bribery to enter the medical school was probably the result of the new admissions system instituted after the first survey. Further actions will be necessary to tackle the continuing presence of bribery to pass examinations and for administrative procedures. The social audit helped to draw attention to corruption and to stimulate actions to tackle it. PMID:22376281

[Evaluation of public health risk. A new instrument for environmental management in Chile].

PubMed

Matus C, Patricia

2011-08-01

One of the main challenges in environmental management is to prevent the public health impact of projects that can cause pollution. To tackle this problem, the new Chilean bill on environmental management has defined the need to determine the potential health risks of a given Project. This paper gives a summary of the method used for risk evaluation and its evolution. Its incorporation in the Environmental Impact Evaluation System is proposed, to guarantee an effective prevention of the potential risks on health of new projects.

Development of modelling algorithm of technological systems by statistical tests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shemshura, E. A.; Otrokov, A. V.; Chernyh, V. G.

2018-03-01

The paper tackles the problem of economic assessment of design efficiency regarding various technological systems at the stage of their operation. The modelling algorithm of a technological system was performed using statistical tests and with account of the reliability index allows estimating the level of machinery technical excellence and defining the efficiency of design reliability against its performance. Economic feasibility of its application shall be determined on the basis of service quality of a technological system with further forecasting of volumes and the range of spare parts supply.

Mixed convection peristaltic flow of third order nanofluid with an induced magnetic field.

PubMed

Noreen, Saima

2013-01-01

This research is concerned with the peristaltic flow of third order nanofluid in an asymmetric channel. The governing equations of third order nanofluid are modelled in wave frame of reference. Effect of induced magnetic field is considered. Long wavelength and low Reynolds number situation is tackled. Numerical solutions of the governing problem are computed and analyzed. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoretic diffusion of nano particles are particularly emphasized. Physical quantities such as velocity, pressure rise, temperature, induced magnetic field and concentration distributions are discussed.

Entropic Inference

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caticha, Ariel

2011-03-01

In this tutorial we review the essential arguments behing entropic inference. We focus on the epistemological notion of information and its relation to the Bayesian beliefs of rational agents. The problem of updating from a prior to a posterior probability distribution is tackled through an eliminative induction process that singles out the logarithmic relative entropy as the unique tool for inference. The resulting method of Maximum relative Entropy (ME), includes as special cases both MaxEnt and Bayes' rule, and therefore unifies the two themes of these workshops—the Maximum Entropy and the Bayesian methods—into a single general inference scheme.

Living in Prone Flooding Area: in Coastal Areas of Semarang

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tyas, W. P.

2018-02-01

When settlements are not able to provide a comfort area to live in, in this case because of a periodic threat of tidal flood coming to certain settlement areas, it is likely that the people still cannot leave the area. This paper explores the leading factors of the attachment of people to the areas, from economic, physical, social and psychological factors, including a place attachment. Therefore, the approach of the problem solution to tackle the tidal flooding in the areas should be also concern and have considerations relate to the factors.

Translational Biomedical Informatics in the Cloud: Present and Future

PubMed Central

Chen, Jiajia; Qian, Fuliang; Yan, Wenying; Shen, Bairong

2013-01-01

Next generation sequencing and other high-throughput experimental techniques of recent decades have driven the exponential growth in publicly available molecular and clinical data. This information explosion has prepared the ground for the development of translational bioinformatics. The scale and dimensionality of data, however, pose obvious challenges in data mining, storage, and integration. In this paper we demonstrated the utility and promise of cloud computing for tackling the big data problems. We also outline our vision that cloud computing could be an enabling tool to facilitate translational bioinformatics research. PMID:23586054

Drug-eluting coronary stents – focus on improved patient outcomes

PubMed Central

Jaffery, Zehra; Prasad, Amit; Lee, John H; White, Christopher J

2011-01-01

The development of stent has been a major advance in the treatment of obstructive coronary artery disease since the introduction of balloon angioplasty. Subsequently, neointimal hyperplasia within the stent leading to in-stent restenosis emerged as a major obstacle in long-term success of percutaneous coronary intervention. Recent introduction of drug-eluting stents is a major breakthrough to tackle this problem. This review article summarizes stent technology, reviews progress of drug-eluting stents and discusses quality of life, patient satisfaction, and acceptability of percutaneous coronary intervention. PMID:22915977

Megastudies, crowdsourcing, and large datasets in psycholinguistics: An overview of recent developments.

PubMed

Keuleers, Emmanuel; Balota, David A

2015-01-01

This paper introduces and summarizes the special issue on megastudies, crowdsourcing, and large datasets in psycholinguistics. We provide a brief historical overview and show how the papers in this issue have extended the field by compiling new databases and making important theoretical contributions. In addition, we discuss several studies that use text corpora to build distributional semantic models to tackle various interesting problems in psycholinguistics. Finally, as is the case across the papers, we highlight some methodological issues that are brought forth via the analyses of such datasets.

Reliable in their failure: an analysis of healthcare reform policies in public systems.

PubMed

Contandriopoulos, Damien; Brousselle, Astrid

2010-05-01

In this paper, we analyze recommendations of past governmental commissions and their implementation in Quebec as a case to discuss the obstacles that litter the road to healthcare system reform. Our analysis shows that the obstacles to tackling the healthcare system's main problems may have less to do with programmatic (what to do) than with political and governance (how to do it) questions. We then draw on neo-institutional theory to discuss the causes and effects of this situation. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interlaboratory studies and initiatives developing standards for proteomics

PubMed Central

Ivanov, Alexander R.; Colangelo, Christopher M.; Dufresne, Craig P.; Friedman, David B.; Lilley, Kathryn S.; Mechtler, Karl; Phinney, Brett S.; Rose, Kristie L.; Rudnick, Paul A.; Searle, Brian C.; Shaffer, Scott A.; Weintraub, Susan T.

2013-01-01

Proteomics is a rapidly transforming interdisciplinary field of research that embraces a diverse set of analytical approaches to tackle problems in fundamental and applied biology. This view-point article highlights the benefits of interlaboratory studies and standardization initiatives to enable investigators to address many of the challenges found in proteomics research. Among these initiatives, we discuss our efforts on a comprehensive performance standard for characterizing PTMs by MS that was recently developed by the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) Proteomics Standards Research Group (sPRG). PMID:23319436

Estimation for the Linear Model With Uncertain Covariance Matrices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zachariah, Dave; Shariati, Nafiseh; Bengtsson, Mats; Jansson, Magnus; Chatterjee, Saikat

2014-03-01

We derive a maximum a posteriori estimator for the linear observation model, where the signal and noise covariance matrices are both uncertain. The uncertainties are treated probabilistically by modeling the covariance matrices with prior inverse-Wishart distributions. The nonconvex problem of jointly estimating the signal of interest and the covariance matrices is tackled by a computationally efficient fixed-point iteration as well as an approximate variational Bayes solution. The statistical performance of estimators is compared numerically to state-of-the-art estimators from the literature and shown to perform favorably.

Public health systems research: the state of the field.

PubMed

Bagley, Prue; Lin, Vivian

2008-11-01

Public health infrastructure provides the building blocks required for the system to achieve public health goals. A systems approach to public health has been suggested as a means to tackle persistent and emerging problems. Systems and infrastructure are attracting increased research attention. A review of the Australian and international literature suggests an absence of empirical evidence about how the system and its component parts does, or should, work and highlights some of the difficulties associated with generating such evidence. It also indicates there is significant scope for further research.

Selection and Biosensor Application of Aptamers for Small Molecules

PubMed Central

Pfeiffer, Franziska; Mayer, Günter

2016-01-01

Small molecules play a major role in the human body and as drugs, toxins, and chemicals. Tools to detect and quantify them are therefore in high demand. This review will give an overview about aptamers interacting with small molecules and their selection. We discuss the current state of the field, including advantages as well as problems associated with their use and possible solutions to tackle these. We then discuss different kinds of small molecule aptamer-based sensors described in literature and their applications, ranging from detecting drinking water contaminations to RNA imaging. PMID:27379229

The five deadly sins of science publishing

PubMed Central

Tracz, Vitek

2015-01-01

Science cannot progress without scientists reporting their findings. And yet researchers have given control of this central pillar of the scientific process to science publishers, who are in the business of serving the interests of their journals; these are not always the same as the interests of science. This editorial describes the problems with the process of preparing and publishing research findings, and with judging their veracity and significance, and then explains how we at Faculty of 1000 are starting to tackle the ‘deadly sins’ of science publishing. PMID:26097694

An optimal analysis for Darcy-Forchheimer 3D flow of Carreau nanofluid with convectively heated surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayat, Tasawar; Aziz, Arsalan; Muhammad, Taseer; Alsaedi, Ahmed

2018-06-01

Darcy-Forchheimer three dimensional flow of Carreau nanoliquid induced by a linearly stretchable surface with convective boundary condition has been analyzed. Buongiorno model has been employed to elaborate thermophoresis and Brownian diffusion effects. Zero nanoparticles mass flux and convective surface conditions are implemented at the boundary. The governing problems are nonlinear. Optimal homotopic procedure has been used to tackle the governing mathematical system. Graphical results clearly depict the outcome of temperature and concentration fields. Surface drag coefficients and local Nusselt number are also plotted and discussed.

What is memory? The present state of the engram.

PubMed

Poo, Mu-Ming; Pignatelli, Michele; Ryan, Tomás J; Tonegawa, Susumu; Bonhoeffer, Tobias; Martin, Kelsey C; Rudenko, Andrii; Tsai, Li-Huei; Tsien, Richard W; Fishell, Gord; Mullins, Caitlin; Gonçalves, J Tiago; Shtrahman, Matthew; Johnston, Stephen T; Gage, Fred H; Dan, Yang; Long, John; Buzsáki, György; Stevens, Charles

2016-05-19

The mechanism of memory remains one of the great unsolved problems of biology. Grappling with the question more than a hundred years ago, the German zoologist Richard Semon formulated the concept of the engram, lasting connections in the brain that result from simultaneous "excitations", whose precise physical nature and consequences were out of reach of the biology of his day. Neuroscientists now have the knowledge and tools to tackle this question, however, and this Forum brings together leading contemporary views on the mechanisms of memory and what the engram means today.

Bullying in schools: what is the problem, and how can educators solve it?

PubMed

Strohmeier, Dagmar; Noam, Gil G

2012-01-01

This chapter reviews recent research on bullying from an educator's perspective. It is well known that bullying, a serious issue in schools, can be prevented when educators intervene. But research has shown that it is difficult for educators to detect bullying situations in their school and intervene competently and effectively. This chapter examines how educators can detect bullying, how they can best tackle serious cases of bullying, and how they can best prevent bullying in the long run. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

Introduction: Unsolved Problems on Noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oriols, X.; Ciliberto, S.

2016-05-01

This paper is an introduction to the special issue of the 7th Int. Conf. on Unsolved Problems on Noise (UPoN) that took place at Casa Convalescència in Barcelona (Spain) in July 2015. The aim of the UPoN conferences is to provide a forum for researchers working on different fields of noise, fluctuations and variability, where they present their scientific problems which resist solutions. The papers of this Special Issue reflect the interdisciplinary topics (physics, biology, circuits, financial markets, psychology, technology, etc) presented at the UPoN conference. Noise is not only a hindrance to signal detection, but it is indeed a valuable source of information (not present in the signal) that help us to get a deeper understanding on how Nature works. This special issue of the 7th International Conference on Unsolved Problems on Noise (UPoN) is dedicated to Laszlo Kish in the occasion of his 60th birthday. He organized the first edition of these UPoN conferences in Szeged (Hungary) in 1996. Many of us have greatly benefited from his ‘volcanic imagination in tackling new problems from unconventional points of views’.

A wideband fast multipole boundary element method for half-space/plane-symmetric acoustic wave problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Chang-Jun; Chen, Hai-Bo; Chen, Lei-Lei

2013-04-01

This paper presents a novel wideband fast multipole boundary element approach to 3D half-space/plane-symmetric acoustic wave problems. The half-space fundamental solution is employed in the boundary integral equations so that the tree structure required in the fast multipole algorithm is constructed for the boundary elements in the real domain only. Moreover, a set of symmetric relations between the multipole expansion coefficients of the real and image domains are derived, and the half-space fundamental solution is modified for the purpose of applying such relations to avoid calculating, translating and saving the multipole/local expansion coefficients of the image domain. The wideband adaptive multilevel fast multipole algorithm associated with the iterative solver GMRES is employed so that the present method is accurate and efficient for both lowand high-frequency acoustic wave problems. As for exterior acoustic problems, the Burton-Miller method is adopted to tackle the fictitious eigenfrequency problem involved in the conventional boundary integral equation method. Details on the implementation of the present method are described, and numerical examples are given to demonstrate its accuracy and efficiency.

A 16-bit Coherent Ising Machine for One-Dimensional Ring and Cubic Graph Problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takata, Kenta; Marandi, Alireza; Hamerly, Ryan; Haribara, Yoshitaka; Maruo, Daiki; Tamate, Shuhei; Sakaguchi, Hiromasa; Utsunomiya, Shoko; Yamamoto, Yoshihisa

2016-09-01

Many tasks in our modern life, such as planning an efficient travel, image processing and optimizing integrated circuit design, are modeled as complex combinatorial optimization problems with binary variables. Such problems can be mapped to finding a ground state of the Ising Hamiltonian, thus various physical systems have been studied to emulate and solve this Ising problem. Recently, networks of mutually injected optical oscillators, called coherent Ising machines, have been developed as promising solvers for the problem, benefiting from programmability, scalability and room temperature operation. Here, we report a 16-bit coherent Ising machine based on a network of time-division-multiplexed femtosecond degenerate optical parametric oscillators. The system experimentally gives more than 99.6% of success rates for one-dimensional Ising ring and nondeterministic polynomial-time (NP) hard instances. The experimental and numerical results indicate that gradual pumping of the network combined with multiple spectral and temporal modes of the femtosecond pulses can improve the computational performance of the Ising machine, offering a new path for tackling larger and more complex instances.

75 FR 81979 - Proposed Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for Social Innovation Fund 2011 Awards; Request for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-12-29

... well-implemented experimental or quasi-experimental studies that demonstrate the program has a sizeable... study or well- designed and well-implemented quasi-experimental study that supports the effectiveness of... moderate evidence: (1) At least one well-designed and well-implemented experimental or quasi-experimental...

Positive Psychological Strengths and School Engagement in Primary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkins, Bronwyn; Boman, Peter; Mergler, Amanda

2015-01-01

A sizeable body of research has investigated the impact of specific character strengths or traits on significant outcomes. Some recent research is beginning to consider the effects of groups of strengths, combined as a higher order variable and termed covitality. This study investigated the combined influence of four positive character traits,…

The Greenfield School Revolution and School Choice. National Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forster, Greg; Woodworth, James L.

2012-01-01

This study uses descriptive data from the U.S. Department of Education to examine the composition of the private school sector in localities with sizeable school choice programs. If existing school choice programs are attracting educational entrepreneurs and unlocking the potential of new school models, the authors should expect to see significant…

Elementary & Middle School Teachers' Use and Perceptions of School Connectedness Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vidourek, Rebecca A.

2009-01-01

A sizeable percentage of US youth engage in risky behaviors which result in extensive preventable morbidity and mortality. School connectedness is the leading school-based protective factor against youth engagement in risky behaviors including violence, suicide, and substance abuse. A comprehensive review of the literature found no published study…

The Orientation Student Profile Card: Improving the Collection of Student Demographic Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clapp, Marlene; Young, Michael

2010-01-01

Bridgewater State University (BSU) is a public institution that falls under the Carnegie classification of Master's Colleges and Universities. BSU is committed to serving students in the New England region. This student population includes a sizeable number of underrepresented students. BSU is dealing with intense pressure to serve these students…

Recent Alcohol Use and Episodic Heavy Drinking among Hispanic Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Keith A.; Vidourek, Rebecca A.

2010-01-01

Background: A sizeable percentage of Hispanic youth are affected by alcohol use. Research is needed to identify specific factors placing Hispanic youth at elevated risk. Purpose: This study examined whether recent alcohol use (past 30 days) and frequent episodic heavy drinking among 7th - 12th grade Hispanic students (N = 946) in Greater…

A STEM Narrative: 15 Years in the Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackley, Susan; Howell, Jennifer

2015-01-01

Since its inception in the late 1990s, STEM has continued to attract attention and sizeable funding in the US, UK, and Australia. This paper narrates the development of the STEM movement both nationally and internationally, and analyses both the influences that have progressed its evolution and those that have stymied authentic STEM practices. The…

Colleges Respond to Student Binge Drinking: Reducing Student Demand or Limiting Access.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wechsler, Henry; Seibring, Mark; Liu, I-Chao; Ahl, Marilyn

2004-01-01

Administrators at 68% of 4-year colleges nationwide (N = 747) responded to a survey concerning the types of programs and policies they used in response to students" heavy drinking. Most schools conducted targeted alcohol education and invested in institutional prevention efforts; half conducted social norms campaigns; a sizeable minority…

Specters of Waste in India's "Silicon Valley": The Underside of Bangalore's Hi-Tech Economy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narayanareddy, Rajyashree

2011-01-01

The southern Indian city of Bangalore is extolled as India's "Silicon Valley," emerging over the past decade as a premier site for capital flows into India's Information Technology (IT) sector. In the dominant narrative of globalization Bangalore is lauded as an aspiring "global city" that attracts sizeable quantities of…

Discussing Perception, Determining Provision: Teachers' Perspectives on the Applied Options of A-Level Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward-Penny, Robert; Johnston-Wilder, Sue; Johnston-Wilder, Peter

2013-01-01

One-third of the current A-level mathematics curriculum is determined by choice, constructed out of "applied mathematics" modules in mechanics, statistics and decision mathematics. Although this choice arguably involves the most sizeable instance of choice in the current English school mathematics curriculum, and it has a significant…

Soviet Railroad Troops: An Updated Review.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-01-01

4 Existing Soviet Transport System ........................... 4 *Scarcity of the Rail System ...basis for a totally new evaluation of the Soviet logistics system as a whole, significant misunderstanding will arise if rail capabilities are degraded...sizeable superiority in divisions, tanks, and artillery, the austere Soviet logistic system is suitable only for supporting a short war. In fact, the

Informal and Deliberate Learning with New Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trinder, Ruth

2017-01-01

Due to the ready availability of new technologies, opportunities for the incidental as well as deliberate practice of English have multiplied and far exceed what can be done in more formal environments. Yet, despite the sizeable literature on the classroom-based use of specific digital resources, few studies have investigated how students evaluate…

The President's Advisory Council: A Seminar for College CEOs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Robert A.

The purpose of the President's Advisory Council at Ramapo College of New Jersey is discussed by the college's president. The Council consists of a small group of experienced executives who discuss with the president strategic issues inherent in managing a sizeable enterprise. The four members of the Council are a marketing expert, a strategic…

The Reversal in Migration Patterns -- Some Rural Development Consequences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ploch, Louis A.

The reversal in migration patterns in the 1970's resulting in a net population flow from metropolitan (urban) to nonmetropolitan (rural) areas may have a variety of rural development consequences. Sizeable population increase in rural communities which traditionally have experienced net out-migration or very slow increases is evident in Maine…

Executive Functions in Individuals with Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Menghini, D.; Addona, F.; Costanzo, F.; Vicari, S.

2010-01-01

Background: The present study was aimed at investigating working memory (WM) and executive functions capacities in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) as compared with mental-age matched typically developing (TD) children. Method: In order to serve the study goal, a sizeable battery of tasks tapping WM as well as attention, memory, planning,…

Leadership Development for Aspiring Community College Presidents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bagadiong, Neil Soriano

2013-01-01

Several longitudinal reports predicted a potential crisis in the nation's community college system: a leadership gap due to a sizeable number of retirements of presidents and other high ranking college leaders. First reported at the beginning of 2000, the gap continues to grow, and recent research highlights the continuing trend. In the near…

Attitudes towards and personal use of complementary and alternative medicine amongst clinicians working in audiovestibular disciplines.

PubMed

Crundwell, G; Baguley, D M

2016-08-01

Literature indicates that complementary and alternative medicine is used by patients with auditory and vestibular symptoms. This study sought to determine the prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine uptake, and examine attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine in clinicians working with audiovestibular disorder patients. The Holistic Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire and a devised questionnaire about recent and lifetime use of complementary and alternative medicine were used. Fifty-four individuals, including audiologists, ENT surgeons, nurses and rehabilitationists, completed the questionnaires (67 per cent response rate). Lifetime prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine uptake was 44 per cent, and 12-month prevalence was 22 per cent. Uptake was more common in females, but there was no significant difference in use when comparing age, seniority or profession. Attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine were mildly adverse, but sizeable standard deviation indicates wide-ranging attitudes. Clinicians working with patients with audiovestibular disorders have a range of attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine. Personal uptake of complementary and alternative medicine was lower than that of the general UK population, but remains sizeable.

The burgeoning field of transdisciplinary adaptation research in Quebec (1998-): a climate change-related public health narrative.

PubMed

Gosselin, Pierre; Bélanger, Diane; Lapaige, Véronique; Labbé, Yolaine

2011-01-01

This paper presents a public health narrative on Quebec's new climatic conditions and human health, and describes the transdisciplinary nature of the climate change adaptation research currently being adopted in Quebec, characterized by the three phases of problem identification, problem investigation, and problem transformation. A transdisciplinary approach is essential for dealing with complex ill-defined problems concerning human-environment interactions (for example, climate change), for allowing joint research, collective leadership, complex collaborations, and significant exchanges among scientists, decision makers, and knowledge users. Such an approach is widely supported in theory but has proved to be extremely difficult to implement in practice, and those who attempt it have met with heavy resistance, succeeding when they find the occasional opportunity within institutional or social contexts. In this paper we narrate the ongoing struggle involved in tackling the negative effects of climate change in multi-actor contexts at local and regional levels, a struggle that began in a quiet way in 1998. The paper will describe how public health adaptation research is supporting transdisciplinary action and implementation while also preparing for the future, and how this interaction to tackle a life-world problem (adaptation of the Quebec public health sector to climate change) in multi-actors contexts has progressively been established during the last 13 years. The first of the two sections introduces the social context of a Quebec undergoing climate changes. Current climatic conditions and expected changes will be described, and attendant health risks for the Quebec population. The second section addresses the scientific, institutional and normative dimensions of the problem. It corresponds to a "public health narrative" presented in three phases: (1) problem identification (1998-2002) beginning in northern Quebec; (2) problem investigation (2002-2006) in which the issues are successively explored, understood, and conceptualized for all of Quebec, and (3) problem transformation (2006-2009), which discusses major interactions among the stakeholders and the presentation of an Action Plan by a central actor, the Quebec government, in alliance with other stakeholders. In conclusion, we underline the importance, in the current context, of providing for a sustained transdisciplinary adaptation to climatic change. This paper should be helpful for (1) public health professionals confronted with establishing a transdisciplinary approach to a real-world problem other than climate change, (2) professionals in other sectors (such as public safety, built environment) confronted with climate change, who wish to implement transdisciplinary adaptive interventions and/or research, and (3) knowledge users (public and private actors; nongovernment organizations; citizens) from elsewhere in multi-contexts/environments/sectors who wish to promote complex collaborations (with us or not), collective leadership, and "transfrontier knowledge-to-action" for implementing climate change-related adaptation measures.

The burgeoning field of transdisciplinary adaptation research in Quebec (1998–): a climate change-related public health narrative

PubMed Central

Gosselin, Pierre; Bélanger, Diane; Lapaige, Véronique; Labbé, Yolaine

2011-01-01

This paper presents a public health narrative on Quebec’s new climatic conditions and human health, and describes the transdisciplinary nature of the climate change adaptation research currently being adopted in Quebec, characterized by the three phases of problem identification, problem investigation, and problem transformation. A transdisciplinary approach is essential for dealing with complex ill-defined problems concerning human–environment interactions (for example, climate change), for allowing joint research, collective leadership, complex collaborations, and significant exchanges among scientists, decision makers, and knowledge users. Such an approach is widely supported in theory but has proved to be extremely difficult to implement in practice, and those who attempt it have met with heavy resistance, succeeding when they find the occasional opportunity within institutional or social contexts. In this paper we narrate the ongoing struggle involved in tackling the negative effects of climate change in multi-actor contexts at local and regional levels, a struggle that began in a quiet way in 1998. The paper will describe how public health adaptation research is supporting transdisciplinary action and implementation while also preparing for the future, and how this interaction to tackle a life-world problem (adaptation of the Quebec public health sector to climate change) in multi-actors contexts has progressively been established during the last 13 years. The first of the two sections introduces the social context of a Quebec undergoing climate changes. Current climatic conditions and expected changes will be described, and attendant health risks for the Quebec population. The second section addresses the scientific, institutional and normative dimensions of the problem. It corresponds to a “public health narrative” presented in three phases: (1) problem identification (1998–2002) beginning in northern Quebec; (2) problem investigation (2002–2006) in which the issues are successively explored, understood, and conceptualized for all of Quebec, and (3) problem transformation (2006–2009), which discusses major interactions among the stakeholders and the presentation of an Action Plan by a central actor, the Quebec government, in alliance with other stakeholders. In conclusion, we underline the importance, in the current context, of providing for a sustained transdisciplinary adaptation to climatic change. This paper should be helpful for (1) public health professionals confronted with establishing a transdisciplinary approach to a real-world problem other than climate change, (2) professionals in other sectors (such as public safety, built environment) confronted with climate change, who wish to implement transdisciplinary adaptive interventions and/or research, and (3) knowledge users (public and private actors; nongovernment organizations; citizens) from elsewhere in multi-contexts/environments/sectors who wish to promote complex collaborations (with us or not), collective leadership, and “transfrontier knowledge-to-action” for implementing climate change-related adaptation measures. PMID:21966228

Nuclear Data Uncertainty Propagation in Depletion Calculations Using Cross Section Uncertainties in One-group or Multi-group

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

Díez, C.J., E-mail: cj.diez@upm.es; Cabellos, O.; Instituto de Fusión Nuclear, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid

Several approaches have been developed in last decades to tackle nuclear data uncertainty propagation problems of burn-up calculations. One approach proposed was the Hybrid Method, where uncertainties in nuclear data are propagated only on the depletion part of a burn-up problem. Because only depletion is addressed, only one-group cross sections are necessary, and hence, their collapsed one-group uncertainties. This approach has been applied successfully in several advanced reactor systems like EFIT (ADS-like reactor) or ESFR (Sodium fast reactor) to assess uncertainties on the isotopic composition. However, a comparison with using multi-group energy structures was not carried out, and has tomore » be performed in order to analyse the limitations of using one-group uncertainties.« less

A first experience with a Smart bus for improving public transportation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tostado, R.; Rovirosa, A.; Velázquez, J. L.; Castillo, E.; Cervantes, O.

2017-09-01

An alternative to optimize transportation services in the city of Puebla is presented. Main problems tackled to provide advanced transport applications in a Smart City, are described and some available solutions in other countries are analyzed. As a case of study, the challenges for designing and developing a mobile application oriented to users of the buses provided by Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) are presented. Users include students, as well as faculty members and administrative employees. The application provides an innovative way of tracking, in real time, movements of the UDLAP transportation buses through the city of Puebla in Mexico. Modeling and technical implementation solved problems are presented and future steps for extending those services to the city of Puebla are also suggested.

Nuclear Data Uncertainty Propagation in Depletion Calculations Using Cross Section Uncertainties in One-group or Multi-group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Díez, C. J.; Cabellos, O.; Martínez, J. S.

2015-01-01

Several approaches have been developed in last decades to tackle nuclear data uncertainty propagation problems of burn-up calculations. One approach proposed was the Hybrid Method, where uncertainties in nuclear data are propagated only on the depletion part of a burn-up problem. Because only depletion is addressed, only one-group cross sections are necessary, and hence, their collapsed one-group uncertainties. This approach has been applied successfully in several advanced reactor systems like EFIT (ADS-like reactor) or ESFR (Sodium fast reactor) to assess uncertainties on the isotopic composition. However, a comparison with using multi-group energy structures was not carried out, and has to be performed in order to analyse the limitations of using one-group uncertainties.

JANUS: a bit-wise reversible integrator for N-body dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rein, Hanno; Tamayo, Daniel

2018-01-01

Hamiltonian systems such as the gravitational N-body problem have time-reversal symmetry. However, all numerical N-body integration schemes, including symplectic ones, respect this property only approximately. In this paper, we present the new N-body integrator JANUS , for which we achieve exact time-reversal symmetry by combining integer and floating point arithmetic. JANUS is explicit, formally symplectic and satisfies Liouville's theorem exactly. Its order is even and can be adjusted between two and ten. We discuss the implementation of JANUS and present tests of its accuracy and speed by performing and analysing long-term integrations of the Solar system. We show that JANUS is fast and accurate enough to tackle a broad class of dynamical problems. We also discuss the practical and philosophical implications of running exactly time-reversible simulations.

Metric projection for dynamic multiplex networks.

PubMed

Jurman, Giuseppe

2016-08-01

Evolving multiplex networks are a powerful model for representing the dynamics along time of different phenomena, such as social networks, power grids, biological pathways. However, exploring the structure of the multiplex network time series is still an open problem. Here we propose a two-step strategy to tackle this problem based on the concept of distance (metric) between networks. Given a multiplex graph, first a network of networks is built for each time step, and then a real valued time series is obtained by the sequence of (simple) networks by evaluating the distance from the first element of the series. The effectiveness of this approach in detecting the occurring changes along the original time series is shown on a synthetic example first, and then on the Gulf dataset of political events.

Adaptive Fuzzy Output Constrained Control Design for Multi-Input Multioutput Stochastic Nonstrict-Feedback Nonlinear Systems.

PubMed

Li, Yongming; Tong, Shaocheng

2017-12-01

In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy output constrained control design approach is addressed for multi-input multioutput uncertain stochastic nonlinear systems in nonstrict-feedback form. The nonlinear systems addressed in this paper possess unstructured uncertainties, unknown gain functions and unknown stochastic disturbances. Fuzzy logic systems are utilized to tackle the problem of unknown nonlinear uncertainties. The barrier Lyapunov function technique is employed to solve the output constrained problem. In the framework of backstepping design, an adaptive fuzzy control design scheme is constructed. All the signals in the closed-loop system are proved to be bounded in probability and the system outputs are constrained in a given compact set. Finally, the applicability of the proposed controller is well carried out by a simulation example.

Big Data Analytics with Datalog Queries on Spark.

PubMed

Shkapsky, Alexander; Yang, Mohan; Interlandi, Matteo; Chiu, Hsuan; Condie, Tyson; Zaniolo, Carlo

2016-01-01

There is great interest in exploiting the opportunity provided by cloud computing platforms for large-scale analytics. Among these platforms, Apache Spark is growing in popularity for machine learning and graph analytics. Developing efficient complex analytics in Spark requires deep understanding of both the algorithm at hand and the Spark API or subsystem APIs (e.g., Spark SQL, GraphX). Our BigDatalog system addresses the problem by providing concise declarative specification of complex queries amenable to efficient evaluation. Towards this goal, we propose compilation and optimization techniques that tackle the important problem of efficiently supporting recursion in Spark. We perform an experimental comparison with other state-of-the-art large-scale Datalog systems and verify the efficacy of our techniques and effectiveness of Spark in supporting Datalog-based analytics.

Big Data Analytics with Datalog Queries on Spark

PubMed Central

Shkapsky, Alexander; Yang, Mohan; Interlandi, Matteo; Chiu, Hsuan; Condie, Tyson; Zaniolo, Carlo

2017-01-01

There is great interest in exploiting the opportunity provided by cloud computing platforms for large-scale analytics. Among these platforms, Apache Spark is growing in popularity for machine learning and graph analytics. Developing efficient complex analytics in Spark requires deep understanding of both the algorithm at hand and the Spark API or subsystem APIs (e.g., Spark SQL, GraphX). Our BigDatalog system addresses the problem by providing concise declarative specification of complex queries amenable to efficient evaluation. Towards this goal, we propose compilation and optimization techniques that tackle the important problem of efficiently supporting recursion in Spark. We perform an experimental comparison with other state-of-the-art large-scale Datalog systems and verify the efficacy of our techniques and effectiveness of Spark in supporting Datalog-based analytics. PMID:28626296

The generalized drift flux approach: Identification of the void-drift closure law

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boure, J. A.

1989-01-01

The main characteristics and the potential advantages of generalized drift flux models are presented. In particular it is stressed that the issue on the propagation properties and on the mathematical nature (hyperbolic or not) of the model and the problem of closure are easier to tackle than in two fluid models. The problem of identifying the differential void-drift closure law inherent to generalized drift flux models is then addressed. Such a void-drift closure, based on wave properties, is proposed for bubbly flows. It involves a drift relaxation time which is of the order of 0.25 s. It is observed that, although wave properties provide essential closure validity tests, they do not represent an easily usable source of quantitative information on the closure laws.

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

Chiang, Nai-Yuan; Zavala, Victor M.

We present a filter line-search algorithm that does not require inertia information of the linear system. This feature enables the use of a wide range of linear algebra strategies and libraries, which is essential to tackle large-scale problems on modern computing architectures. The proposed approach performs curvature tests along the search step to detect negative curvature and to trigger convexification. We prove that the approach is globally convergent and we implement the approach within a parallel interior-point framework to solve large-scale and highly nonlinear problems. Our numerical tests demonstrate that the inertia-free approach is as efficient as inertia detection viamore » symmetric indefinite factorizations. We also demonstrate that the inertia-free approach can lead to reductions in solution time because it reduces the amount of convexification needed.« less

Size and consistency of problem-solving consultation outcomes: an empirical analysis.

PubMed

Hurwitz, Jason T; Kratochwill, Thomas R; Serlin, Ronald C

2015-04-01

In this study, we analyzed extant data to evaluate the variability and magnitude of students' behavior change outcomes (academic, social, and behavioral) produced by consultants through problem-solving consultation with teachers. Research questions were twofold: (a) Do consultants produce consistent and sizeable positive student outcomes across their cases as measured through direct and frequent assessment? and (b) What proportion of variability in student outcomes is attributable to consultants? Analyses of extant data collected from problem-solving consultation outcome studies that used single-case, time-series AB designs with multiple participants were analyzed. Four such studies ultimately met the inclusion criteria for the extant data, comprising 124 consultants who worked with 302 school teachers regarding 453 individual students. Consultants constituted the independent variable, while the primary dependent variable was a descriptive effect size based on student behavior change as measured by (a) curriculum-based measures, (b) permanent products, or (c) direct observations. Primary analyses involved visual and statistical evaluation of effect size magnitude and variability observed within and between consultants and studies. Given the nested nature of the data, multilevel analyses were used to assess consultant effects on student outcomes. Results suggest that consultants consistently produced positive effect sizes on average across their cases, but outcomes varied between consultants. Findings also indicated that consultants, teachers, and the corresponding studies accounted for a significant proportion of variability in student outcomes. This investigation advances the use of multilevel and integrative data analyses to evaluate consultation outcomes and extends research on problem-solving consultation, consultant effects, and meta-analysis of case study AB designs. Practical implications for evaluating consultation service delivery in school settings are also discussed. Copyright © 2015 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sexual Function in 16- to 21-Year-Olds in Britain.

PubMed

Mitchell, Kirstin R; Geary, Rebecca; Graham, Cynthia; Clifton, Soazig; Mercer, Catherine H; Lewis, Ruth; Macdowall, Wendy; Datta, Jessica; Johnson, Anne M; Wellings, Kaye

2016-10-01

Concern about young people's sexuality is focused on the need to prevent harmful outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy. Although the benefit of a broader perspective is recognized, data on other aspects of sexuality, particularly sexual function, are scant. We sought to address this gap by measuring the population prevalence of sexual function problems, help seeking, and avoidance of sex in young people. A cross-sectional stratified probability sample survey (Natsal-3) of 15,162 women and men in Britain (response rate: 57.7%), using computer-assisted self-interviews. Data come from 1875 (71.9%) sexually active, and 517 sexually inactive (18.7%), participants aged 16-21 years. Measures were single items from a validated measure of sexual function (the Natsal-SF). Among sexually active 16- to 21-year-old participants, 9.1% of men and 13.4% of women reported a distressing sexual problem lasting 3 months or more in the last year. Most common among men was reaching a climax too quickly (4.5%), and among women was difficulty in reaching climax (6.3%). Just over a third (35.5%) of men and 42.3% of women reporting a problem had sought help, but rarely from professional sources. Among those who had not had sex in the last year, just >10% of young men and women said they had avoided sex because of sexual difficulties. Distressing sexual function problems are reported by a sizeable minority of sexually active young people. Education is required, and counseling should be available, to prevent lack of knowledge, anxiety, and shame progressing into lifelong sexual difficulties. Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluating Variability and Uncertainty of Geological Strength Index at a Specific Site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yu; Aladejare, Adeyemi Emman

2016-09-01

Geological Strength Index (GSI) is an important parameter for estimating rock mass properties. GSI can be estimated from quantitative GSI chart, as an alternative to the direct observational method which requires vast geological experience of rock. GSI chart was developed from past observations and engineering experience, with either empiricism or some theoretical simplifications. The GSI chart thereby contains model uncertainty which arises from its development. The presence of such model uncertainty affects the GSI estimated from GSI chart at a specific site; it is, therefore, imperative to quantify and incorporate the model uncertainty during GSI estimation from the GSI chart. A major challenge for quantifying the GSI chart model uncertainty is a lack of the original datasets that have been used to develop the GSI chart, since the GSI chart was developed from past experience without referring to specific datasets. This paper intends to tackle this problem by developing a Bayesian approach for quantifying the model uncertainty in GSI chart when using it to estimate GSI at a specific site. The model uncertainty in the GSI chart and the inherent spatial variability in GSI are modeled explicitly in the Bayesian approach. The Bayesian approach generates equivalent samples of GSI from the integrated knowledge of GSI chart, prior knowledge and observation data available from site investigation. Equations are derived for the Bayesian approach, and the proposed approach is illustrated using data from a drill and blast tunnel project. The proposed approach effectively tackles the problem of how to quantify the model uncertainty that arises from using GSI chart for characterization of site-specific GSI in a transparent manner.

Fractional Programming for Communication Systems—Part I: Power Control and Beamforming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Kaiming; Yu, Wei

2018-05-01

This two-part paper explores the use of FP in the design and optimization of communication systems. Part I of this paper focuses on FP theory and on solving continuous problems. The main theoretical contribution is a novel quadratic transform technique for tackling the multiple-ratio concave-convex FP problem--in contrast to conventional FP techniques that mostly can only deal with the single-ratio or the max-min-ratio case. Multiple-ratio FP problems are important for the optimization of communication networks, because system-level design often involves multiple signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio terms. This paper considers the applications of FP to solving continuous problems in communication system design, particularly for power control, beamforming, and energy efficiency maximization. These application cases illustrate that the proposed quadratic transform can greatly facilitate the optimization involving ratios by recasting the original nonconvex problem as a sequence of convex problems. This FP-based problem reformulation gives rise to an efficient iterative optimization algorithm with provable convergence to a stationary point. The paper further demonstrates close connections between the proposed FP approach and other well-known algorithms in the literature, such as the fixed-point iteration and the weighted minimum mean-square-error beamforming. The optimization of discrete problems is discussed in Part II of this paper.

Solving lot-sizing problem with quantity discount and transportation cost

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Amy H. I.; Kang, He-Yau; Lai, Chun-Mei

2013-04-01

Owing to today's increasingly competitive market and ever-changing manufacturing environment, the inventory problem is becoming more complicated to solve. The incorporation of heuristics methods has become a new trend to tackle the complex problem in the past decade. This article considers a lot-sizing problem, and the objective is to minimise total costs, where the costs include ordering, holding, purchase and transportation costs, under the requirement that no inventory shortage is allowed in the system. We first formulate the lot-sizing problem as a mixed integer programming (MIP) model. Next, an efficient genetic algorithm (GA) model is constructed for solving large-scale lot-sizing problems. An illustrative example with two cases in a touch panel manufacturer is used to illustrate the practicality of these models, and a sensitivity analysis is applied to understand the impact of the changes in parameters to the outcomes. The results demonstrate that both the MIP model and the GA model are effective and relatively accurate tools for determining the replenishment for touch panel manufacturing for multi-periods with quantity discount and batch transportation. The contributions of this article are to construct an MIP model to obtain an optimal solution when the problem is not too complicated itself and to present a GA model to find a near-optimal solution efficiently when the problem is complicated.

Tackling childhood obesity: the importance of understanding the context.

PubMed

Knai, Cécile; McKee, Martin

2010-12-01

Recommendations to tackle major health problems such as childhood obesity may not be appropriate if they fail to take account of the prevailing socio-political, cultural and economic context. We describe the development and application of a qualitative risk analysis approach to identify non-scientific considerations framing the policy response to obesity in Denmark and Latvia. Interviews conducted with key stakeholders in Denmark and Latvia, undertaken following a review of relevant literature on obesity and national policies. A qualitative risk analysis model was developed to help explain the findings in the light of national context. Non-scientific considerations that appeared to influence the response to obesity include the perceived relative importance of childhood obesity; the nature of stakeholder relations and its impact on decision-making; the place of obesity on the policy agenda; the legitimacy of the state to act for population health and views on alliances between public and private sectors. Better recognition of the exogenous factors affecting policy-making may lead to a more adequate policy response. The development and use of a qualitative risk analysis model enabled a better understanding of the contextual factors and processes influencing the response to childhood obesity in each country.

Wind Turbine Failures - Tackling current Problems in Failure Data Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reder, M. D.; Gonzalez, E.; Melero, J. J.

2016-09-01

The wind industry has been growing significantly over the past decades, resulting in a remarkable increase in installed wind power capacity. Turbine technologies are rapidly evolving in terms of complexity and size, and there is an urgent need for cost effective operation and maintenance (O&M) strategies. Especially unplanned downtime represents one of the main cost drivers of a modern wind farm. Here, reliability and failure prediction models can enable operators to apply preventive O&M strategies rather than corrective actions. In order to develop these models, the failure rates and downtimes of wind turbine (WT) components have to be understood profoundly. This paper is focused on tackling three of the main issues related to WT failure analyses. These are, the non-uniform data treatment, the scarcity of available failure analyses, and the lack of investigation on alternative data sources. For this, a modernised form of an existing WT taxonomy is introduced. Additionally, an extensive analysis of historical failure and downtime data of more than 4300 turbines is presented. Finally, the possibilities to encounter the lack of available failure data by complementing historical databases with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) alarms are evaluated.

Transforming patient experience: health web science meets medicine 2.0.

PubMed

McHattie, Lynn-Sayers; Cumming, Grant; French, Tara

2014-01-01

Until recently, the Western biomedical paradigm has been effective in delivering health care, however this model is not positioned to tackle complex societal challenges or solve the current problems facing health care and delivery. The future of medicine requires a shift to a patient-centric model and in so doing the Internet has a significant role to play. The disciplines of Health Web Science and Medicine 2.0 are pivotal to this approach. This viewpoint paper argues that these disciplines, together with the field of design, can tackle these challenges. Drawing together ideas from design practice and research, complexity theory, and participatory action research we depict design as an approach that is fundamentally social and linked to concepts of person-centered care. We discuss the role of design, specifically co-design, in understanding the social, psychological, and behavioral dimensions of illness and the implications for the design of future care towards transforming the patient experience. This paper builds on the presentations and subsequent interdisciplinary dialogue that developed from the panel session "Transforming Patient Experience: Health Web Science Meets Web 2.0" at the 2013 Medicine 2.0 conference in London.

Transforming Patient Experience: Health Web Science Meets Medicine 2.0

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Until recently, the Western biomedical paradigm has been effective in delivering health care, however this model is not positioned to tackle complex societal challenges or solve the current problems facing health care and delivery. The future of medicine requires a shift to a patient-centric model and in so doing the Internet has a significant role to play. The disciplines of Health Web Science and Medicine 2.0 are pivotal to this approach. This viewpoint paper argues that these disciplines, together with the field of design, can tackle these challenges. Drawing together ideas from design practice and research, complexity theory, and participatory action research we depict design as an approach that is fundamentally social and linked to concepts of person-centered care. We discuss the role of design, specifically co-design, in understanding the social, psychological, and behavioral dimensions of illness and the implications for the design of future care towards transforming the patient experience. This paper builds on the presentations and subsequent interdisciplinary dialogue that developed from the panel session "Transforming Patient Experience: Health Web Science Meets Web 2.0" at the 2013 Medicine 2.0 conference in London. PMID:25075246