199,063 research outputs found

    Why tracing a locality's networked governance is worthwhile

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    The transition from government to governance brings about a shift in performance evaluation. The focus can no longer be on an individual entity, but must extend into considering how a collective of government and non-government institutions achieves the outcomes sought. How can this evaluation task proceed? While applying the formal methods of social network analysis (SNA) to measuring, analysing and managing networked governance may seem obvious to some, such a solution seems to have been avoided over many decades. SNA tools that non-experts can use have been released in recent past, providing opportunities in learning-by-doing among practitioners and scholars with responsibilities or interests in public sector management. The overarching aim in this paper is to promote adoption of an open-source software tool - NodeXL - as one pathway toward understanding and improving networked governance situations, and toward communicating results to others. It begins by establishing three areas of information needs held by Australia's local governments, where undertaking a pilot study could be useful. They are, local government's real positioning with other decision-makers in the networked governance that is Australian federalism; world better practice in risk governance, given the significant exposure of Australian councils to natural disaster events; and measuring change over time in governance capital, as a component in the capitals approach to measuring sustainable development. Establishing functional and spatial boundaries was a key step in design, with the choice being environment protection and natural resources management in the 350km2 catchment area of the Wonboyn Lake estuary on the far south coast of New South Wales. A Web search of documents containing the terms 'Wonboyn Lake' or 'Wonboyn River' then followed. One hundred and twenty nine documents were retrieved. Analysing their contents led to identifying over two hundred institutional actors either transmitting or receiving knowledge relevant to the locality. Some 420 communications taking place between 1967 and 2011 were identified, and tagged according to year of transmission. The decision-making level within which each institutional actor operated; and whether industry, regulator, external researcher or stakeholder were other characteristics recorded. A 421 x 2 matrix of Wonboyn data was then pasted into the NodeXL template operating on MS Excel 2007/2010. Resource materials downloaded from the Web supported the learning-by-doing element of the pilot study. Four visualisations on networked environmental governance are provided. The first shows unmodified data as a graph in random layout. Its purpose is to provide a benchmark against which some of the SNA procedures available for analysing data can be compared. Then follow three graph layouts, each designed to meet the areas of information need established at the study's beginning. Results suggest, in the author's opinion, any time invested in learning-by-doing with NodeXL will reward those wishing to understand, manage and communicate the complexity that is networked governance. Suggestions on how the Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government, and practitioners in local councils, could be early adopters of this innovation by using data already available to them are offered, so that they may undertake similar pilot studies

    Bridges Structural Health Monitoring and Deterioration Detection Synthesis of Knowledge and Technology

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    INE/AUTC 10.0

    Examination on total ozone column retrievals by Brewer spectrophotometry using different processing software

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    The availability of long-term records of the total ozone content (TOC) represents a valuable source of information for studies on the assessment of short-and long-term atmospheric changes and their impact on the terrestrial ecosystem. In particular, ground-based observations represent a valuable tool for validating satellite-derived products. To our knowledge, details about software packages for processing Brewer spectrophotometer measurements and for retrieving the TOC are seldom specified in studies using such datasets. The sources of the differences among retrieved TOCs from the Brewer instruments located at the Italian stations of Rome and Aosta, using three freely available codes (Brewer Processing Software, BPS; O3Brewer software; and European Brewer Network (EUBREWNET) level 1.5 products) are investigated here. Ground-based TOCs are also compared with Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) TOC retrievals used as an independent dataset since no other instruments near the Brewer sites are available. The overall agreement of the BPS and O3Brewer TOC data with EUBREWNET data is within the estimated total uncertainty in the retrieval of total ozone from a Brewer spectrophotometer (1%). However, differences can be found depending on the software in use. Such differences become larger when the instrumental sensitivity exhibits a fast and dramatic drift which can affect the ozone retrievals significantly. Moreover, if daily mean values are directly generated by the software, differences can be observed due to the configuration set by the users to process single ozone measurement and the rejection rules applied to data to calculate the daily value. This work aims to provide useful information both for scientists engaged in ozone measurements with Brewer spectrophotometers and for stakeholders of the Brewer data products available on Web-based platforms

    Experimental tests of the operating conditions of a micro gas turbine device

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    The aim of this work is to analyze the performance of a commercial micro gas turbine, focusing on the analysis of the fuel consumption and the outlet compressor and turbine temperature at various rpm, and to evaluate and compare the efficiency of the device. A test bench has been assembled with the available equipment in the laboratory of the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering in Roma. By using the software supplied by the manufacturer, the evaluation of the operating performance of the device at different speeds has been performed, obtaining all the values of interest

    NASA guidelines on report literature

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    NASA seeks for inclusion in its Scientific and Technical Information System research reports, conference proceedings, meeting papers, monographs, and doctoral and post graduate theses which relate to the NASA mission and objectives. Topics of interest to NASA are presented

    Electronic setup for fluorescence emission measurements and long-time constant-temperature maintenance of Single-Walled Carbon Nano-Tubes in water solutions

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    In our previous research we have observed that the fluorescence emission from water solutions of Single-Walled Carbon Nano-Tubes (SWCNT), excited by a laser with a wavelength of 830nm, diminishes with the time. We have already proved that such a fading is a function of the storage time and the storage temperature. In order to study the emission of the SWCNT as a function of these two parameters we have designed and realized a special measurement compartment with a cuvette holder where the SWCNT solutions can be measured and stored at a fixed constant temperature for periods of time as long as several weeks. To maintain the measurement setup under a constant temperature we have designed special experimental setup based on two Peltier cells with electronic temperature control

    Efficient Sound Card Based Experimention At Different Levels Of Natural Science Education

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    Sound cards, which count as standard equipment in today's computers, can be turned into measurement tools, making experimentation very efficient and cheap. The chief difficulties to overcome are the lack of proper hardware interfacing and processing software. Sound-card experimentation becomes really viable only if we demonstrate how to connect different sensors to the sound card and provide suitable open-source software to support the experiments. In our talk, we shall present a few applications of sound cards in measurements: photogates, stopwatches and an example of temperature measurement and registration. We also provide the software for these applications.Comment: MPTL-HSCI 2011 Joint conference, 15-17 September 2011, Ljubljana, Sloveni

    Experimental setup for light-to-heat NIR conversion measurements of gold nano-particles\u2019 solutions

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    In recent years, there is a constantly increasing interest in the application of nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis and cancer therapy. In this respect, the most promising nano-objects at present are the gold nanoparticles. A very convenient and powerful property of these objects is their ability to increase their temperature under electro-magnetic irradiation with certain wavelength. In our research we have directed our efforts toward particular nano-objects specifically sensitive to electromagnetic radiation in the near-infrared region (NIR). In order to study the photothermic properties of the solutions of gold nanoparticles in the NIR we constructed a specific electronic setup consisting of a laser system with interchangeable laser diodes with different wavelength NIR light, a thermally-insulated cuvette-holder compartment with temperature measuring probes and a NIR spectrometer to control the stimulated fluorescence emission of the nanoparticles\u2019 solutions. The temperature measurement compartment with the thermal-insulated cuvette holder was designed to maintain the solutions\u2019 temperature at a fixed value right before the moment of laser irradiation. To maintain the measurement setup at a fixed temperature before the irradiation we used a thermal stabilized system based on two Peltier cells with electronic temperature control. The temperatures of the ambient air and the temperature of the cuvette walls were continuously measured in order to make corrections about the temperature dissipation during the irradiation

    Low-Cost Air Quality Monitoring Tools: From Research to Practice (A Workshop Summary).

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    In May 2017, a two-day workshop was held in Los Angeles (California, U.S.A.) to gather practitioners who work with low-cost sensors used to make air quality measurements. The community of practice included individuals from academia, industry, non-profit groups, community-based organizations, and regulatory agencies. The group gathered to share knowledge developed from a variety of pilot projects in hopes of advancing the collective knowledge about how best to use low-cost air quality sensors. Panel discussion topics included: (1) best practices for deployment and calibration of low-cost sensor systems, (2) data standardization efforts and database design, (3) advances in sensor calibration, data management, and data analysis and visualization, and (4) lessons learned from research/community partnerships to encourage purposeful use of sensors and create change/action. Panel discussions summarized knowledge advances and project successes while also highlighting the questions, unresolved issues, and technological limitations that still remain within the low-cost air quality sensor arena

    Relation Between Particle Mass and Number for Submicrometer Airborne Particles

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    The relationship between particle mass and the number of ambient air particles for the submicrometer size range was examined using a Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance to determine the mass concentration, and a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer to determine the volume concentration and total number of particles. After validating the techniques through their application to the estimation of submicrometer particle density for two laboratory generated aerosols of known bulk density (Sodium Chloride and Di-2-ethylhexyl-sebacate), the submicrometer fraction of laboratory generated Environmental Tobacco Smoke and ambient air were examined and an estimate of the average submicrometer particle densities for these aerosols found to be 1.18 g cm-3 and 1.7 g cm-3 respectively
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