Key Aspects of Occupational Health and Safety towards Efficiency and Performance in Air Traffic Management

This paper/chapter deals with the key drivers for adopting and developing an Occupational Health and Safety System (OHS) with a special focus on air traffic management and traffic controller’s workplace. A such system includes regulation and legal compliance procedures, actions and monitoring for ensuring workplace safety, incentives and motivation for the air traffic controller and associate personnel health and wellbeing. By a systemic approach, the key characteristics of OHS towards air traffic management are presented, highlighting the key aspects for implementing a quality management system in air traffic control, which is the cornerstone of airport operation efficiency and productivity on one hand; and the nature of job and the intensive working environment is well recognised. Based on air traffic providers functional analysis the key occupational aspects for air traffic control are taken into consideration, providing the benefits for implementing quality management systems (QMS) and OHS is real business. Conventional wisdom is to highlight the importance for establishing and incorporating a modern custom-made OHS system in accordance with the requirements addressed by OHSAS 18001 to develop and implement a QMS for air traffic services. Contribution of this paper is to highlight the key priorities for managers and decision makers in field of air traffic services providers, depicting ways and recommendation for adopting an efficient path for implementing OHS in a QMS environment

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Muscle spindle function in muscular dystrophy : A potential target for therapeutic intervention

This Perspectives article highlights an article by Gerwin et al. To read this paper, visit https://doi.org/10.1113/JP278563.</p

Goal-dependent tuning of muscle spindle receptors during movement preparation

Voluntary movements are believed to undergo preparation before they are executed. Preparatory activity can benefit reaction time and the quality of planned movements, but the neural mechanisms at work during preparation are unclear. For example, there are no overt changes in muscle force during preparation. Here, using an instructed-delay manual task, we demonstrate a decrease in human muscle afferent activity (primary spindles) when preparing to reach targets in directions associated with stretch of the spindle-bearing muscle. This goal-dependent modulation of proprioceptors began early after target onset but was markedly stronger at the latter parts of the preparatory period. Moreover, whole-arm perturbations during reach preparation revealed a modulation of stretch reflex gains (shoulder and upper arm muscles) that reflected the observed changes in spindle activity. We suggest that one function of central preparatory activity is to tune muscle stiffness according to task goals via the independent control of muscle spindle sensors

Queue management policies for high quality of service in terrestrial and space internets

In this thesis, we study the problems that we meet in earth and space internets and propose solutions based on packet management within the routers. The heterogeneity associated with the characteristics of the various networks and applications, demands solutions that are targeted to the specific problems and do not cause conflicts to the rest of the protocols. Our study has three parts: in the first part, we deal with terrestrial internets and, specifically, we are interested in increasing the transmission throughput (Head-to-Tail), providing differentiated services to real-time applications (Size-oriented Queue Management) and balancing network throughput and fairness (Equilibrium-RED). In the second part, we study space internets and make a novel proposal for an architecture appropriate for queue management for space nodes. The novelty of our proposal is reflected on the proposed DTN architecture that aims to interconnect the various regional space networks with the Internet. Last, in the third part, we unify our individual policies and propose a generalized queue management architecture for mobile nodes.Στην παρούσα διατριβή μελετάμε τα προβλήματα που απαντώνται σε επίγεια και διαστημικά διαδίκτυα και προτείνουμε λύσεις βασισμένες στη διαχείριση των πακέτων στους καταχωρητές των δρομολογητών. Η ετερογένεια των συνθηκών του κάθε δικτύου και των εφαρμογών που διακινούνται από αυτό, απαιτεί από εμάς προσεγγίσεις στοχευμένες στα συγκεκριμένα προβλήματα, οι οποίες όμως δε θα προκαλούν διενέξεις στα υπόλοιπα πρωτόκολλα. Η μελέτη μας αποτελείται από τρία μέρη. Στο πρώτο μέρος, ασχολούμαστε με τα επίγεια διαδίκτυα και, συγκεκριμένα, με την αύξηση της απόδοσης των μεταδόσεων (Head-to-Tail), με την παροχή διαφοροποιημένων υπηρεσιών σε εφαρμογές πραγματικού χρόνου (Size-oriented Queue Management) και τον έλεγχο της συμπεριφοράς του δικτύου ως προς την απόδοση και δικαιοσύνη (Equilibrium-RED). Στο δεύτερο μέρος μελετάμε τα διαστημικά διαδίκτυα και προτείνουμε, για πρώτη φορά στη βιβλιογραφία, μία αρχιτεκτονική διαχείρισης ουρών για διαστημικούς κόμβους. Η καινοτομία έγκειται και στο γεγονός ότι λαμβάνουμε υπ΄ όψιν την προσφάτως προτεινόμενη, αρχιτεκτονική DTN, που σκοπό έχει τη διασύνδεση των διαστημικών δικτύων με το Διαδίκτυο. Τέλος, στο τρίτο μέρος, ενοποιούμε τις επιμέρους προτάσεις μας, προτείνοντας μια γενικευμένη αρχιτεκτονική διαχείρισης ουρών σε κόμβους που κινούνται σε δίκτυα διαφορετικών χαρακτηριστικών

Queue-Management Architecture for Delay Tolerant Networking

Part 8: Emerging ContributionsInternational audienceDuring the last years, the interest in Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networks has been significantly increased, mainly because DTN covers a vast spectrum of applications, such as deep-space, satellite, sensor and vehicular networks. Even though the Bundle Protocol seems to be the prevalent candidate architecture for delay-tolerant applications, some practical issues hinder its wide deployment. One of the functionalities that require further research and implementation is DTN queue management. Indeed, queue management in DTN networks is a complex issue: loss of connectivity or extended delays, render occasionally meaningless any pre-scheduled priority for packet forwarding. Our Queue-management approach integrates connectivity status into buffering and forwarding policy, eliminating the possibility of stored data to expire and promoting applications that show potential to run smoothly. Therefore, our approach does not rely solely on marked priorities but rather on active networking conditions. We present our model analytically and compare it with standard solutions. We then develop an evaluation tool by extending ns-2 modules and, based on selective scenarios primarily from Space Communications, we demonstrate the suitability of our model for use in low-connectivity/high-delay environments

A Review on Pathogens and Necessary Diagnostic Work for Bleb-Related Infections (BRIs)

At the present time, as newer techniques and minimally invasive procedures gain popularity among anterior segment surgeons for regulating intraocular pressure, trabeculectomy still has a leading role in glaucoma surgery. Trabeculectomy retains a highly successful and safe profile; however, one of the major complications includes bleb-related infections (BRIs). To date, the most common pathogens remain Gram-positive cocci, but the list of pathogens that have been identified in the literature includes more than 100 microorganisms. Because antibiotic use is more widespread than ever before and our ability to identify pathogens has improved, the pathogen spectrum will broaden in the future and more pathogens causing BRIs will be described as atypical presentations. The scope of this review was to identify all pathogens that have been described to cause bleb-related infections to date, as well as focus on the risk factors, clinical presentation, and various available diagnostic tools used for an appropriate diagnostic workup

Hydrodynamic computational modelling and simulations of collisional shock waves in gas jet targets

We study the optimization of collisionless shock acceleration of ions based on hydrodynamic modelling and simulations of collisional shock waves in gaseous targets. The models correspond to the specifications required for experiments with the laser at the Accelerator Test Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Vulcan Petawatt system at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. In both cases, a laser prepulse is simulated to interact with hydrogen gas jet targets. It is demonstrated that by controlling the pulse energy, the deposition position and the backing pressure, a blast wave suitable for generating nearly monoenergetic ion beams can be formed. Depending on the energy absorbed and the deposition position, an optimal temporal window can be determined for the acceleration considering both the necessary overdense state of plasma and the required short scale lengths for monoenergetic ion beam production

Coherent XUV Multispectral Diffraction Imaging in the Microscale

The rapid growth of nanotechnology has increased the need for fast nanoscale imaging. X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) facilities currently provide such coherent sources of directional and high-brilliance X-ray radiation. These facilities require large financial investments for development, maintenance, and manpower, and thus, only a few exist worldwide. In this article, we present an automated table-top system for XUV coherent diffraction imaging supporting the capabilities for multispectral microscopy at high repetition rates, based on laser high harmonic generation from gases. This prototype system aims towards the development of an industrial table-top system of ultrafast soft X-ray multi-spectral microscopy imaging for nanostructured materials with enormous potential and a broad range of applications in current nanotechnologies. The coherent XUV radiation is generated in a semi-infinite gas cell via the high harmonic generation of the near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The XUV spectral selection is performed by specially designed multilayer XUV mirrors that do not affect the XUV phase front and pulse duration

Coherent XUV Multispectral Diffraction Imaging in the Microscale

The rapid growth of nanotechnology has increased the need for fast nanoscale imaging. X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) facilities currently provide such coherent sources of directional and high-brilliance X-ray radiation. These facilities require large financial investments for development, maintenance, and manpower, and thus, only a few exist worldwide. In this article, we present an automated table-top system for XUV coherent diffraction imaging supporting the capabilities for multispectral microscopy at high repetition rates, based on laser high harmonic generation from gases. This prototype system aims towards the development of an industrial table-top system of ultrafast soft X-ray multi-spectral microscopy imaging for nanostructured materials with enormous potential and a broad range of applications in current nanotechnologies. The coherent XUV radiation is generated in a semi-infinite gas cell via the high harmonic generation of the near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The XUV spectral selection is performed by specially designed multilayer XUV mirrors that do not affect the XUV phase front and pulse duration