71 research outputs found
Operations management system
The objective of an operations management system is to provide an orderly and efficient method to operate and maintain aerospace vehicles. Concepts are described for an operations management system and the key technologies are highlighted which will be required if this capability is brought to fruition. Without this automation and decision aiding capability, the growing complexity of avionics will result in an unmanageable workload for the operator, ultimately threatening mission success or survivability of the aircraft or space system. The key technologies include expert system application to operational tasks such as replanning, equipment diagnostics and checkout, global system management, and advanced man machine interfaces. The economical development of operations management systems, which are largely software, will require advancements in other technological areas such as software engineering and computer hardware
Low-temperature far-infrared ellipsometry of convergent beam
Development of an ellipsometry to the case of a coherent far infrared
irradiation, low temperatures and small samples is described, including a
decision of the direct and inverse problems of the convergent beam ellipsometry
for an arbitrary wavelength, measurement technique and a compensating
orientation of cryostat windows. Experimental results are presented: for a gold
film and UBe13 single crystal at room temperature (lambda=119 um), temperature
dependencies of the complex dielectric function of SrTiO3 (lambda=119, 84 and
28 um) and of YBa2Cu3O7-delta ceramic (lambda=119 um).Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
Spirometry reference equations for central European populations from school age to old age.
Spirometry reference values are important for the interpretation of spirometry results. Reference values should be updated regularly, derived from a population as similar to the population for which they are to be used and span across all ages. Such spirometry reference equations are currently lacking for central European populations. To develop spirometry reference equations for central European populations between 8 and 90 years of age. We used data collected between January 1993 and December 2010 from a central European population. The data was modelled using "Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape" (GAMLSS). The spirometry reference equations were derived from 118'891 individuals consisting of 60'624 (51%) females and 58'267 (49%) males. Altogether, there were 18'211 (15.3%) children under the age of 18 years. We developed spirometry reference equations for a central European population between 8 and 90 years of age that can be implemented in a wide range of clinical settings
Asynchronous, Photometric Feature Tracking using Events and Frames
We present a method that leverages the complementarity of event cameras and
standard cameras to track visual features with low-latency. Event cameras are
novel sensors that output pixel-level brightness changes, called "events". They
offer significant advantages over standard cameras, namely a very high dynamic
range, no motion blur, and a latency in the order of microseconds. However,
because the same scene pattern can produce different events depending on the
motion direction, establishing event correspondences across time is
challenging. By contrast, standard cameras provide intensity measurements
(frames) that do not depend on motion direction. Our method extracts features
on frames and subsequently tracks them asynchronously using events, thereby
exploiting the best of both types of data: the frames provide a photometric
representation that does not depend on motion direction and the events provide
low-latency updates. In contrast to previous works, which are based on
heuristics, this is the first principled method that uses raw intensity
measurements directly, based on a generative event model within a
maximum-likelihood framework. As a result, our method produces feature tracks
that are both more accurate (subpixel accuracy) and longer than the state of
the art, across a wide variety of scenes.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, Video: https://youtu.be/A7UfeUnG6c
The Role of Planning in Implementing Sustainable Development in a Higher Education Context
The implementation of sustainable development in higher education is an important goal, and one which requires much planning. The many recurring problems and barriers that hinder the attainment of sustainable development objectives at universities are either directly or indirectly related to deficiencies in planning which pose a significant barrier to the implementation of sustainable development. There is therefore a perceived need to foster a better understanding of how planning may help higher education institutions to become more successful in implementing sustainable development. Based on this need, this paper describes the role of planning as a tool for improved knowledge and sound decision-making towards a better understanding of sustainability in a science and technology context, and the motivation towards transformation. In particular, it reports on a survey in the context of which some of the major obstacles for planning and implementing sustainable development at universities are outlined. The study identified the fact that many universities are yet to have fully developed plans to take into account matters related to sustainable development, and describes some the elements which could be considered in attempts to give a greater emphasis to sustainability to planning in a higher education context
Semi-Dense 3D Reconstruction with a Stereo Event Camera
Event cameras are bio-inspired sensors that offer several advantages, such as
low latency, high-speed and high dynamic range, to tackle challenging scenarios
in computer vision. This paper presents a solution to the problem of 3D
reconstruction from data captured by a stereo event-camera rig moving in a
static scene, such as in the context of stereo Simultaneous Localization and
Mapping. The proposed method consists of the optimization of an energy function
designed to exploit small-baseline spatio-temporal consistency of events
triggered across both stereo image planes. To improve the density of the
reconstruction and to reduce the uncertainty of the estimation, a probabilistic
depth-fusion strategy is also developed. The resulting method has no special
requirements on either the motion of the stereo event-camera rig or on prior
knowledge about the scene. Experiments demonstrate our method can deal with
both texture-rich scenes as well as sparse scenes, outperforming
state-of-the-art stereo methods based on event data image representations.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, Video: https://youtu.be/Qrnpj2FD1e
Planning and implementing sustainability in higher education institutions: an overview of the difficulties and potentials
Planning in sustainable development is believed to be an important element in allowing higher education institutions to set their goals and to commit themselves towards undertaking concrete actions and measures at all levels in order to implement sustainability. Yet, there is a paucity of research that has looked at the extent to which planning can support institutions of higher education to assess their performances and to determine whether the set aims have been met. This research gap needs to be met to allow a better understanding of how planning can help to promote the integration of the three components of sustainable development–economic development, social development and environmental protection in higher education. This paper explores the challenges for planning the sustainable development in higher education, also outlining the potentials lessons learned that could assist in improving Education for Sustainable Development efforts in Higher Education Institutions. Among its main results are the fact that many universities wish to pursue sustainable development, but their efforts are hindered by lack of institutional support and planning and limited emphasis on approaches, such as problem-based learning. The universities that are engaged in the field have to face many problems, varying from limited resources to lack of trained staff. As a result, integrated approaches to sustainability become difficult to implement. Finally, the paper has identified the fact that many opportunities offered mainstream developments, such as the UN Declaration ‘The World we Want’ or the UN Sustainable Development Goals are not being put to full use
Effect of Activated Carbon Amendment on Bacterial Community Structure and Functions in a PAH Impacted Urban Soil
ABSTRACT: We collected urban soil samples impacted by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from a sorbent-based remediation field trial to address concerns about unwanted side-effects of 2 % powdered (PAC) or granular (GAC) activated carbon amendment on soil microbiology and pollutant biodegradation. After three years, total microbial cell counts and respiration rates were highest in the GAC amended soil. The predominant bacterial community structure derived from denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) shifted more strongly with time than in response to AC amendment. DGGE band sequencing revealed the presence of taxa with closest affiliations either to known PAH degraders, e.g. Rhodococcus jostii RHA-1, or taxa known to harbor PAH degraders, e.g. Rhodococcus erythropolis, in all soils. Quantification by real-time polymerase chain reaction yielded similar dioxygenases gene copy numbers in unamended, PAC-, or GACamended soil. PAH availability assessments in batch tests showed th
Lung function decline in relation to diagnostic criteria for airflow obstruction in respiratory symptomatic subjects
Contains fulltext :
108583.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Current COPD guidelines advocate a fixed < 0.70 FEV1/FVC cutpoint to define airflow obstruction. We compared rate of lung function decline in respiratory symptomatic 40+ subjects who were 'obstructive' or 'non-obstructive' according to the fixed and/or age and gender specific lower limit of normal (LLN) FEV1/FVC cutpoints. METHODS: We studied 3,324 respiratory symptomatic subjects referred to primary care diagnostic centres for spirometry. The cohort was subdivided into four categories based on presence or absence of obstruction according to the fixed and LLN FEV1/FVC cutpoints. Postbronchodilator FEV1 decline served as primary outcome to compare subjects between the respective categories. RESULTS: 918 subjects were obstructive according to the fixed FEV1/FVC cutpoint; 389 (42%) of them were non-obstructive according to the LLN cutpoint. In smokers, postbronchodilator FEV1 decline was 21 (SE 3) ml/year in those non-obstructive according to both cutpoints, 21 (7) ml/year in those obstructive according to the fixed but not according to the LLN cutpoint, and 50 (5) ml/year in those obstructive according to both cutpoints (p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: This study showed that respiratory symptomatic 40+ smokers and non-smokers who show FEV1/FVC values below the fixed 0.70 cutpoint but above their age/gender specific LLN value did not show accelerated FEV1 decline, in contrast with those showing FEV1/FVC values below their LLN cutpoint
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Exploits Asparagine to Assimilate Nitrogen and Resist Acid Stress during Infection
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an intracellular pathogen. Within macrophages, M. tuberculosis thrives in a specialized membrane-bound vacuole, the phagosome, whose pH is slightly acidic, and where access to nutrients is limited. Understanding how the bacillus extracts and incorporates nutrients from its host may help develop novel strategies to combat tuberculosis. Here we show that M. tuberculosis employs the asparagine transporter AnsP2 and the secreted asparaginase AnsA to assimilate nitrogen and resist acid stress through asparagine hydrolysis and ammonia release. While the role of AnsP2 is partially spared by yet to be identified transporter(s), that of AnsA is crucial in both phagosome acidification arrest and intracellular replication, as an M. tuberculosis mutant lacking this asparaginase is ultimately attenuated in macrophages and in mice. Our study provides yet another example of the intimate link between physiology and virulence in the tubercle bacillus, and identifies a novel pathway to be targeted for therapeutic purposes. © 2014 Gouzy et al
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