536 research outputs found

    Speaking COVID-19: supporting COVID-19 communication and engagement efforts with people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

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    BACKGROUND: Since the emergence of COVID-19, issues have been raised regarding the approach used to engage with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) communities during this public health crisis. This study aimed to understand the factors impacting communication and engagement efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of crucial CaLD community stakeholders and opinion leaders. METHODS: Forty-six semi-structured telephone interviews were undertaken with key stakeholders who have an active role (established before the pandemic) in delivering services and other social support to CaLD communities in Australia. RESULTS: Seven key themes emerged: (1) the digital divide and how to connect with people; (2) information voids being filled by international material; (3) Differentiating established with new and emerging communities' needs; (4) speaking COVID-19; (5) ineffectiveness of direct translations of English language resources; (6) coordination is needed to avoid duplication and address gaps and (7) recognising the improvements in governments' approach. CONCLUSION: Alliances must be set up that can be activated in the future to reduce issues around resource development, translation, and dissemination of messages to minimise gaps in the response. Financial assistance must be provided in a timely way to community organisations to support the development and dissemination of culturally appropriate communication materials

    Thermodynamic Comparison of Organic Rankine Cycles Employing Liquid-Flooded Expansion or a Solution Circuit

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    Two modifications to a conventional Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) are investigated: an Organic Rankine Cycle with Liquid-Flooded Expansion (ORCLFE), and an Organic Rankine Cycle with Solution Circuit (ORCSC). The ORCLFE involves “flooding” the expansion device with a liquid that is in thermal equilibrium with the primary working fluid, while simultaneously expanding the primary working fluid through the same device. The ORCSC employs a zeotropic mixture consisting of two components with a large boiling point difference. The more volatile component in the vapor phase is separated from the absorbent in the liquid phase; the vapor then flows through the expansion device, whereas the liquid absorbent gives rise to a regenerative solution circuit. A thermodynamic model is used to compare these modified ORCs with conventional ORC technology for a range of working fluids including ammonia, water, CO2, acetone, pentane, R134a and R245fa. The working fluid pairs considered for the ORCSC are ammoniaewater and CO2eacetone. Based purely on thermodynamic considerations, the conventional ORC using water as the working fluid is found to be more efficient than ORCs that use other working fluids. It yields almost 65% of the Carnot efficiency for a source and sink temperature of 200C and 20C, respectively. However, the use of water requires low expander exhaust quality, large pressure ratios, and a large expander due to its low density at the expander exhaust. Thus, the practical challenges of using water as a working fluid at typical ORC input temperatures may make its use prohibitive. The ORCLFE always leads to improved cycle efficiency when compared to an ORC for a given working fluid, but it requires the use of a positive displacement expander. The ORCSC shows the lowest efficiencies for the working fluid pairs studied. There are significant practical advantages intrinsic to both the ORCLFE and the ORCSC. For example, the more isothermal expansion of the ORCLFE eliminates the concern of low expander exhaust quality for wet working fluids. The ORCSC provides the ability to use the two-phase temperature glide to match source and sink temperature profiles, facilitates intrinsic capacity control, and can have significantly lower working pressures than an ORC. Ultimately, the overall best choice of cycle and working fluid is highly application-specific and should balance the tradeoffs between efficiency and practical concerns. The thermodynamic analysis presented in this work represents a step toward identifying an optimal ORC solution for an application where the temperature glides of the source and sink fluids are sufficiently small to approximate a thermal energy reservoir

    Анализ условий труда и разработка мероприятий по их усовершенствованию на предприятии ООО

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    В данной выпускной квалификационной работе проводиться анализ условий труда и травматизма на Юргинском машиностроительном заводе. На основании этих исследований выявляются опасные и вредные производственные факторы, а так же разрабатываются мероприятия по усовершенствованию условий труда.In this graduation qualification work, an analysis of working conditions and injuries at the Yurga machine-building plant is carried out. Based on these studies, hazardous and harmful production factors are identified, as well as measures are being developed to improve working conditions

    Multilingual representations for low resource speech recognition and keyword search

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    © 2015 IEEE. This paper examines the impact of multilingual (ML) acoustic representations on Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and keyword search (KWS) for low resource languages in the context of the OpenKWS15 evaluation of the IARPA Babel program. The task is to develop Swahili ASR and KWS systems within two weeks using as little as 3 hours of transcribed data. Multilingual acoustic representations proved to be crucial for building these systems under strict time constraints. The paper discusses several key insights on how these representations are derived and used. First, we present a data sampling strategy that can speed up the training of multilingual representations without appreciable loss in ASR performance. Second, we show that fusion of diverse multilingual representations developed at different LORELEI sites yields substantial ASR and KWS gains. Speaker adaptation and data augmentation of these representations improves both ASR and KWS performance (up to 8.7% relative). Third, incorporating un-transcribed data through semi-supervised learning, improves WER and KWS performance. Finally, we show that these multilingual representations significantly improve ASR and KWS performance (relative 9% for WER and 5% for MTWV) even when forty hours of transcribed audio in the target language is available. Multilingual representations significantly contributed to the LORELEI KWS systems winning the OpenKWS15 evaluation

    The Grizzly, February 9, 1979

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    False Alarm Leads To Student Arrest • Annual Report Reveals Enrollment Decline • SFARC Disbandment Questioned • ID Crackdown • USGA Election Results • Career Counseling & Placement Services • Letters to the Editor: Snack shop; Zeta Chi; Food waste angers waitress; Theft precautions cited • Roving Reporter: Forums requirement • Ursinus News In Brief: Soviet relations; Basses needed • An Inside View of Alice Cooper • Audio Corner: Turntables • Al Stewart: England\u27s Answer to Bob Dylan • Sheer Energy • Sport Book Review • New Semester; New Offerings • Grapplers Take Two • Bruins Split • Indoor Bears Off and Running • Men\u27s Swim Goes Under • Gymnasts Revenge Pennhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1012/thumbnail.jp

    Vertical zonation of testate amoebae in the Elatia Mires, northern Greece : palaeoecological evidence for a wetland response to recent climate change or autogenic processes?

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    The Elatia Mires of northern Greece are unique ecosystems of high conservation value. The mires are climatically marginal and may be sensitive to changing hydroclimate, while northern Greece has experienced a significant increase in aridity since the late twentieth century. To investigate the impact of recent climatic change on the hydrology of the mires, the palaeoecological record was investigated from three near-surface monoliths extracted from two sites. Testate amoebae were analysed as sensitive indicators of hydrology. Results were interpreted using transfer function models to provide quantitative reconstructions of changing water table depth and pH. AMS radiocarbon dates and 210Pb suggest the peats were deposited within the last c. 50 years, but do not allow a secure chronology to be established. Results from all three profiles show a distinct shift towards a more xerophilic community particularly noted by increases in Euglypha species. Transfer function results infer a distinct lowering of water tables in this period. A hydrological response to recent climate change is a tenable hypothesis to explain this change; however other possible explanations include selective test decay, vertical zonation of living amoebae, ombrotrophication and local hydrological change. It is suggested that a peatland response to climatic change is the most probable hypothesis, showing the sensitivity of marginal peatlands to recent climatic change

    RNAi screening identifies Trypanosoma brucei stress response protein kinases required for survival in the mouse

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    Protein kinases (PKs) are a class of druggable targets in Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of Human African Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), yet little is known about which PKs are essential for survival in mammals. A recent kinome-wide RNAi screen with 176 individual bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei lines identified PKs required for proliferation in culture. In order to assess which PKs are also potential virulence factors essential in vivo, lines were pooled, inoculated into mice, and screened for loss of fitness after 48 h RNAi. The presence of trypanosomes in the bloodstream was assessed using RNAi target sequencing (RITseq) and compared to growth in culture. We identified 49 PKs with a significant loss of fitness in vivo in two independent experiments, and a strong correlation between in vitro and in vivo loss of fitness for the majority. Nine PKs had a more pronounced growth defect in vivo, than in vitro. Amongst these PKs were several with putative functions related to stress responses mediated through the PI3K/TOR or MAPK signaling cascades, which act to protect the parasite from complement-mediated and osmotic lysis. Identification of these virulence-associated PKs provides new insights into T. brucei-host interaction and reveals novel potential protein kinase drug targets
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