A CASE STUDY OF VARIOUS WIRELESS NETWORK SIMULATION TOOLS

4G is the fastest developing system in the history of mobile communication networks. Network connectivity is paramount for all kinds of big enterprises.  4G not only provides super-fast connectivity to millions of users, but can also act as an enterprise network connectivity enabler and it has inherent advantages such as higher bandwidth, low latency, higher spectrum efficiency along with backward compatibility and future proofing. The design of the 4G based Long Term Evolution physical network provides the required flexibility for optimization during the development phase. In this paper LTE Network related supporting simulation tools is presented to demonstrate the need of Hardware co-simulation of the LTE system. After the feasibility analysis, the importance of the model is to be ported Field Programmable Gate Array platform is examined in survey in detail with the supporting inferences along with the comparison of different wireless network simulators suitable for LTE

Logística reversa em postos de combustíveis da região metropolitana de Curitiba

The National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS) established by Law 12,305/2010, mentions Reverse Logistics (RL) as a development tool for the return of the production cycle, and also presents instruments for shared responsibility for the life cycle of products. The RL of lubricating oils in post-consumption and return is linked to concern for the environment and sustainability in the business sphere. The aim of this study was to describe the RL process of gas stations and their tax benefits, through bibliographic and documentary research, in addition to an unstructured interview with professionals involved in the process and through a case study. It was found that compliance with environmental obligations imposed by the Government, such as the destination of used or contaminated lubricating oil packaging (OLUC), can be considered inputs that may generate PIS and COFINS credits, and the revenues obtained from the sale of the destination of OLUC may be considered as environmental revenues, as well as the structure of real estate to be measured as environmental assets.A Política Nacional dos Resíduos Sólidos (PNRS) instituída pela Lei 12.305/2010 cita a Logística Reversa (RL) como um instrumento de desenvolvimento para o retorno do ciclo produtivo, também apresenta instrumentos para a responsabilidade compartilhada pelo ciclo de vida dos produtos. A RL dos óleos lubrificantes no pós-consumo e o retorno está vinculado a preocupação com o meio ambiente e a sustentabilidade no âmbito empresarial. O objetivo deste estudo foi descrever o processo de logística reversa de postos de combustíveis e seus benefícios tributários, através de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, além de entrevista não estruturada com profissionais envolvidos no processo e por meio de estudo de caso. Verificou-se que o cumprimento das obrigações ambientais impostas pelo Poder Público, como a destinação das embalagens de óleos lubrificantes usadas ou contaminadas (OLUC), pode ser considerado insumos e que poderão gerar créditos de PIS e COFINS, e as receitas obtidas pela venda da destinação do OLUC poderão ser consideradas como receitas ambientais, bem como a estrutura dos bens imóveis serem mensurados como ativos ambientais

Safety of Roll-on Roll-off vessels

The design concept of ro-ro ship has come under considerable criticisms after a series of accidents and subsequent loss of lives. This thesis studies the design concept of ro-ro which makes it different from traditional, subdivided vessels. It is felt, that to be able to put ro-ro safety into perspective, particular attention should be given to elements that affect safety of shipping in general. Casualty statistics are studied, in order to prove if the level of risk of accident is higher for ro-ro than traditional ships. The thesis also hope to show if ro-ros are more likely to capsize after events involving, collision, cargo shift or foundering. Having identified the various hazards of ro-ro, some changes to the concept are put forward which may improve its safety. Improvement in operation procedures, shore management and training is also suggested

Airbnb customer satisfaction through online reviews

With the development and better access to the Internet, mobile devices and social media, people began to post online their opinions and reviews of products and services. These comments influence new customer buying decisions and qualify companies to gain superior insight into their customers’ experience and satisfaction. Thus, it has become essential for companies to adopt methods capable of analyzing this information and extracting its value in order to better serve their customers’ unmet needs. The area of tourism and hospitality was one of the most affected by this trend. For this reason, this study will focus on the reviews of an online platform, Airbnb, so that it also studies the technological disruption in the mentioned industry. This new method of home-sharing has gained more and more followers for its advantages and differences compared to common hotels, which has triggered increasing researcher. Airbnb’s guest reviews describe each guest’s experiences (the positive and negative aspects of their stay) and will be studied through Text Mining. This consists of several methods capable of analyzing large amounts of unstructured information such as Big Data, in order to better understand overall customer satisfaction, including the factors that will influence it. Results show that distinct dimensions are valued by guests and they are different in different areas of Sintra.Com o desenvolvimento e maior acesso à Internet, dispositivos móveis e redes sociais, as pessoas começaram a publicar online as suas opiniões e avaliações de produtos e serviços. Estes comentários influenciam as decisões de compra de novos clientes e permitem às empresas obter um maior conhecimento sobre a experiência e satisfação dos seus clientes. Assim, tornou-se imprescindível para as estas, adotarem métodos capazes de analisar esta informação e extrair valor da mesma de modo a conseguirem atender de forma mais ajustada às necessidades dos seus clientes. A área da hospitalidade foi uma das mais afetadas por esta tendência. Por esse motivo, este estudo vai ser focado nas reviews de uma plataforma online, o Airbnb, juntando assim também uma disrupção tecnológica desta mesma área. Este novo método de alojamento partilhado tem ganho cada mais seguidores pelas suas vantagens e diferenças em relação a hotéis mais comuns, mas também tem sido um assunto cada vez mais estudado por investigadores. Os comentários estudados do Airbnb descrevem as experiências de cada hóspede relativamente ao alojamento onde permaneceram e são estudados através de Text Mining. Este consiste em vários métodos capazes de analisar grandes volumes de informação não estruturados como Big data para consequentemente compreender melhor a satisfação geral dos clientes, nomeadamente os fatores que a vão influenciar. Os resultados mostram que existem várias dimensões valorizadas e diferentes para as zonas estudadas em Sintra

Simulation Techniques

In the papers surveyed in this thesis a number of simulation techniques are presented together with their applications to several examples. The papers improve upon existing techniques and introduce new techniques. The improvement of existing techniques is motivated in programming methodology: It is demonstrated that existing techniques often introduce a double proof burden whereas the improved techniques alleviate such a burden. One application is to ensure delay insensitivity in a class of self-timed circuits. A major part of the thesis is concerned with the deduction and use of two simulation techniques to prove the correctness of translations from subsets of occam-2 to transputer code

A Pilot Study of Value of Information Analysis to Support Research Recommendations for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

Background - This project developed as a result of the activities of the Research Teams at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York, and ScHARR at the University of Sheffield in the methods and application of decision analysis and value of information analysis as a means of informing the research recommendations made by NICE, as part of its Guidance to the NHS in England and Wales, and informing the deliberations of the NICE Research and Development Committee. Objectives - The specific objectives of the pilot study were to: • Demonstrate the benefits of using appropriate decision analytic methods and value of information analysis to inform research recommendations. • Establish the feasibility and resource implications of applying these methods in a timely way, to inform NICE. • Identify critical issues and methodological challenges to the use of value of information methods for research recommendations (with particular regard to the new reference case as a suitable basis for this type of analysis).

COMPARE Family (Children of Mentally Ill Parents at Risk Evaluation): A Study Protocol for a Preventive Intervention for Children of Mentally Ill Parents (Triple P, Evidence-Based Program That Enhances Parentings Skills, in Addition to Gold-Standard CBT With the Mentally Ill Parent) in a Multicenter RCT—Part II

Background: Mental health problems are highly frequent, as well as being associated with enormous societal and economic costs and significant disability-adjusted life years. Children of parents with a mental illness (COPMI) are at a tremendously increased risk to develop disorders themselves. According to the literature, parental mental disorders launch a wave of risk factors that in turn predict the emergence of psychological problems in the offspring, and effective treatment of the parental disorder has been associated with reduced child psychopathology (launch and grow assumption). Furthermore, studies focusing on parent-child interaction demonstrate generally poorer parenting skills in parents with mental disorders, and the enhancement of such skills has been a significant mediator in improving child outcomes (parenting assumption).Objective: To implement a preventive intervention for COPMI with the aim of interrupting the transmission of mental disorders in children of a parent with mental disorders. An RCT will compare state-of-the-art cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for a parent with mental disorders to CBT plus the Positive Parenting Program (Triple-P), a well-established and evidence-based program that enhances parenting skills.Methods: A total of 634 patients seeking treatment in 8 outpatient clinics in Germany and their children will be included between January 2018 and April 2021 in the study. We use (clinical) interviews and self- as well as other-report questionnaires to assess the families at four main measurement points [T1: beginning of waiting period for psychotherapy treatment (duration of waiting period depends on usual waiting period in the study center: multiple baselines), T2: begin of parental psychotherapy, T3: post-assessment, T4: 6 months follow-up]. The total observation period will be 39 months. The patients will be randomly assigned to either the control condition (25 to 45 CBT sessions) or the experimental condition (25 to 45 CBT sessions + 10 Triple-P sessions). For evaluating the treatment process, the patients and clinicians will also be assessed after each treatment session. Furthermore, there will be a continuous assessment and report of adverse events during treatment.Discussion: This trial will be the first ever to address the launch and grow as well as the parenting assumption in one study and to establish effects of the two different interventions on children's health. Our study will also likely be the first one to provide data on the comparative cost-effectiveness and will therefore provide essential information relevant for the potential implementation of such programs. The structure of the RCT will allow us to establish effects of the parental disorder(s) with/without comorbidities on children's health, to test assumptions of the trans-generational transmission model of mental disorders and bi-directional influences of different treatments on the model and to analyze specific transmission mechanisms. A deeper understanding of risk mechanisms will reveal specific transmission profiles that will result in the early detection of and effective reduction in risk factors and thus improve the health of the children at risk.Ethics: The study is carried out according to the Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines, the Declaration of Helsinki and its later supplements and local legal requirements. The lead ethics committee at the department of psychology at Philipps-University Marburg approved the study procedure and all study documents. A positive ethics committee vote is required at a study site, before the inclusion of a first patient at the respective site.Dissemination: Via peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals, the results of this study will be made available to the scientific community. Using PsychData all primary data will be made available for re- and meta-analyses. Politicians, public health services, and stakeholders will be informed throughout the study and beyond, thus, improving public policy and health care decisions concerning preventive interventions and treatments for COPMI.Trial Registration: DRKS-ID: DRKS00013516 (German Clinical Trials Register, https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00013516

Evaluating progress for the implementation of European Union nanotechnology strategies for safe design and responsible innovation of nanomaterials

This study examines the twin themes of risk governance and anticipatory governance to establish whether European Union (EU) risk governance instruments and others such as Responsible Research and Innovation( RRI ) are delivering on their promises for the safe and responsible development of nanomaterials(NM). This is an empirical study that conducts semi-structured interviews with cross-sectoral experts working within nanotechnologies to examine these issues. The main findings identify critical flaws in the principal chemical safety regulations(REACH) due to the lack of specificity for NM safety testing, and the scientifically contested EU definition for NM. Both of which undermine legal authority for enforcing regulatory compliance. Secondly, critical scientific gaps are evident that prevent comprehensive nano-risk analysis of the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) implications of NM production. Thirdly, there are indications that the nano industry is seeking to avoid engaging with either product regulation (REACH) or the social-ethical appraisal of NM production. Finally, compounding these deficiencies, the EU does not provide a bespoke overarching EU risk governance framework to scrutinise either the EHS effects or the wider social implications of current and future nano-innovation pathways. In this study, I proposes a novel solution for such a framework centred on a ‘Safety by Social Design’ approach. Its purpose is to facilitate responsible innovation by the societal alignment of nano innovation within an adaptive and integrative risk governance framework. This will serve the purpose of progressing the EU towards a more anticipatory governance approach for nano innovation

Embedded Cloud System for Ann-Cod Analysis Using UV Spectroscopy

One of the many parameters indicating water quality is chemical oxygen demand (COD), which is an indirect measurement of the amount of organic compound material in water. There have been many studies, in both academia and the industry, to analyze the COD content of water using spectral analysis. The proposal of this thesis was to study, analyze, and identify methods to determine the presence of COD using UV spectroscopy data and an artificial neural network (ANN) in a cloud-connected embedded system. The system was implemented using an ARM11 board and a portable spectrometer. Light in the UV range was used to analyze the water sample. As an analysis strategy, the spectral data were converted into a real number value in the range of 0 to 1. Twenty equidistance samples were taken out of the converted data to be fed into the ANN, and the ANN was trained with known samples to identify any presence of COD. Experiments used laboratory-calibrated water samples with known COD and some real-life water samples. All the experiments showed that the implemented system could successfully indicate the presence or absence of COD in the given water sample. The system also successfully demonstrated the application of a cloud-connected embedded system to an area in environmental engineering. This indicated that the system was a bridge between computer and environmental engineering

An assessment of the pre-registration preparation of nurses as an educational experience

The aim of this study is to assess the pre-registration preparation of nurses as a means for producing women and men capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations had done. The issues which are examined are:-(1) The purposes of nurse education (11) The extant forms of knowledge (111) The nature of teacher/student relationships in the process of learning. The study was carried out in three stages:- (1) Analysis of the literature from 1947 to 1963 by abstracting and utilising grounded theory approaches to identify the essential issues.(11) Opinion survey of student nurses utilising content and structural analysis of the audio-taped recordings of interviews to develop a theory of nurse education in the 1980's,(ill) Experimental testing of one operational hypothesis describing the effect of teacher behaviours on the student nurse’s clinical decision making. It is concluded that the pre-registration preparation of nurses is not an educational experience on the grounds that the extant forms of knowledge and the prevalent teacher/student relationships are inconsistent with the production of a critical, reflective and self-reliant practitioner. Because of this, the recommendations of UKCC Project 2000 must be carefully planned and closely monitored if the problems of the theory/practice gap are to be minimised rather than exacerbated