247 research outputs found
Successful containment of a nosocomial outbreak of Burkholderia cepacia in a special care baby unit of a base hospital in Sri Lanka
Towards relating delivery methods and examination success: lessons learned from the VALO LLP project case study
Didactic, teacher-centred approaches and rote learning have long been discredited and gradually replaced by participative, interactive and creative learning sessions. Formal classroom sessions are being replaced or augmented by self-directed study increasingly in distance mode. The evolution and affordability of technologies enables massive participation in studies, not only for short training for professional updating but also for longer study periods and attainment of qualifications. The rapid changes in society and technology demand that everybody continuously updates their knowledge and skills in their area of expertise and gain knowledge, skills and competencies in other areas for a successful life of careers and not necessarily a career for life as was the norm in the past. It is important to safeguard the quality of independent assessment and certification methods. In this paper we consider the main delivery methods and their impact on assessment methods and associated results. With reference to the ECQA framework and the recently completed EU co-funded Lifelong Learning Programme project VALO we juxtapose the delivery methods used and the examination results at different partner institutions. We extract observed issues and trends, which could be principles to be adopted by future projects with regards to process improvement and performance enhancement
Airframe Noise Results from the QTD II Flight Test Program
With continued growth in air travel, sensitivity to community noise intensifies and materializes in the form of increased monitoring, regulations, and restrictions. Accordingly, realization of quieter aircraft is imperative, albeit only achievable with reduction of both engine and airframe components of total aircraft noise. Model-scale airframe noise testing has aided in this pursuit; however, the results are somewhat limited due to lack of fidelity of model hardware, particularly in simulating full-scale landing gear. Moreover, simulation of true in-flight conditions is non-trivial if not infeasible. This paper reports on an investigation of full-scale landing gear noise measured as part of the 2005 Quiet Technology Demonstrator 2 (QTD2) flight test program. Conventional Boeing 777-300ER main landing gear were tested, along with two noise reduction concepts, namely a toboggan fairing and gear alignment with the local flow, both of which were down-selected from various other noise reduction devices evaluated in model-scale testing at Virginia Tech. The full-scale toboggan fairings were designed by Goodrich Aerostructures as add-on devices allowing for complete retraction of the main gear. The baseline-conventional gear, faired gear, and aligned gear were all evaluated with the high-lift system in the retracted position and deployed at various flap settings, all at engine idle power setting. Measurements were taken with flyover community noise microphones and a large aperture acoustic phased array, yielding far-field spectra, and localized sources (beamform maps). The results were utilized to evaluate qualitatively and quantitatively the merit of each noise reduction concept. Complete similarity between model-scale and full-scale noise reduction levels was not found and requires further investigation. Far-field spectra exhibited no noise reduction for both concepts across all angles and frequencies. Phased array beamform maps show inconclusive evidence of noise reduction at selective frequencies (1500 to 3000 Hz) but are otherwise in general agreement with the far-field spectra results (within measurement uncertainty)
A semantic segmentation approach to recognize assault rifles in ISIS propaganda images
Security and Global Affair
Patterns of dominant flows in the world trade web
The large-scale organization of the world economies is exhibiting
increasingly levels of local heterogeneity and global interdependency.
Understanding the relation between local and global features calls for
analytical tools able to uncover the global emerging organization of the
international trade network. Here we analyze the world network of bilateral
trade imbalances and characterize its overall flux organization, unraveling
local and global high-flux pathways that define the backbone of the trade
system. We develop a general procedure capable to progressively filter out in a
consistent and quantitative way the dominant trade channels. This procedure is
completely general and can be applied to any weighted network to detect the
underlying structure of transport flows. The trade fluxes properties of the
world trade web determines a ranking of trade partnerships that highlights
global interdependencies, providing information not accessible by simple local
analysis. The present work provides new quantitative tools for a dynamical
approach to the propagation of economic crises
IMPACT OF LAND USE CHANGES THE CATCHMENT ON THE QUALITY AND QUANT1TY OF WATER IN THE RAJANGANA RESERVOIR
The condition of the watershed plays an important role in the quality and quantity of thewater of reservoirs. Among the factors, which affect the health of a watershed, areclimate, geology and land use management. Rajangana watershed drains water to theRajangana reservoir, which irrigates about 5520 ha in the dry zone.In the present study, total monthly inflows to the reservoir were calculated through awater balance study and water inflows from the catchments were obtained through asensitivity analysis using past records. Land use changes were studied by using existingland use maps (1: 50,000) using GIS software. Some water quality parameters in thereservoir waters were analysed. These parameters were compared with the ones takenduring the past 10 years from past records of the MASL in order to identify any trendswith the changes of rainfall, temperature, land use etc.The results showed that the annual total water inflow and also the inflow during the dryseason decreased with time. These trends correlated with the increase in built up areas,reduction of forest cover. Further, there was a marked increase of the pH and alkalinity inthe waters with time
The International-Trade Network: Gravity Equations and Topological Properties
This paper begins to explore the determinants of the topological properties
of the international - trade network (ITN). We fit bilateral-trade flows using
a standard gravity equation to build a "residual" ITN where trade-link weights
are depurated from geographical distance, size, border effects, trade
agreements, and so on. We then compare the topological properties of the
original and residual ITNs. We find that the residual ITN displays, unlike the
original one, marked signatures of a complex system, and is characterized by a
very different topological architecture. Whereas the original ITN is
geographically clustered and organized around a few large-sized hubs, the
residual ITN displays many small-sized but trade-oriented countries that,
independently of their geographical position, either play the role of local
hubs or attract large and rich countries in relatively complex
trade-interaction patterns
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