Modeling threshold exceedance probabilities of spatially correlated time series

The Commission of the European Union, as well the United States Environmental Protection Agency, have set limit values for some pollutants in the ambient air that have been shown to have adverse effects on human and environmental health. It is therefore important to identify regions where the probability of exceeding those limits is high. We propose a two-step procedure for estimating the probability of exceeding the legal limits that combines smoothing in the time domain with spatial interpolation. For illustration, we show an application to particulate matter with diameter less than 10 microns (PM$_{10}$) in the North-Italian region Piemonte.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-EJS252 the Electronic Journal of Statistics (http://www.i-journals.org/ejs/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Optimization of Micro Injection Molding of Polymeric Medical Devices Using Software Tools

AbstractMicro injection molding is a domain which implies challenges for both producers of moulds and technologists. Due to special conditions required by the process of micro injection molding, chemical, physical and thermal properties of the injected polymeric material are affected, material behaviour is different compared with that during the classical process of injection moulding and so, optimization of parameters of the injection process is needed. This work has shown the process of optimization of micro injection in template given a medical application. A numerical analysis has been performed using the Autodesk Moldflow Insight software given a “surgical micro-stitch” marker device

Teachers` Perceptions and Attitudes Regarding ESL

Early school leaving has important social and economic implications. Young people who leave school prematurely are predisposed to the risk associated with unemployment or small gains when they find a job. The estimates related to the competences required in Europe show that, in the future, only one in ten jobs will be accessed by a person who has left school early. Taking into account the importance of understanding this phenomenon, in order to reduce it, we`ve done a research to identify teachers` perceptions and attitudes regarding ESL. The research of the ESL phenomenon, from the perspective of its causes, in particular the causes associated with the school environment, has circumscribed two types of approaches: a quantitative approach, achieved through the elaboration and administration of a questionnaire addressed to teachers and a quaclitative approach based on designing and conducting focus-groups with teachers. Dimensions explored in our research were: communication/interpersonal/pedagogical competences; main causes of conflictual relations with students and solving strategies used; challenges in daily work with students; representations/beliefs of the factors which can increase student commitment and student motivation; causes of the ESL; school strategies to prevent ESL; teaching methods used to prevent the school disengagement. The results obtained demonstrated that teachers have a wide range of perceptions and attitudes regarding ESl, especially regarding the causes associated with the school environment. Some of them consider that ESL is not caused by school related factors, others consider that this factors may occur, but they don`t have power to reduce their action

Reconfigurable acceleration of genetic sequence alignment: A survey of two decades of efforts

Genetic sequence alignment has always been a computational challenge in bioinformatics. Depending on the problem size, software-based aligners can take multiple CPU-days to process the sequence data, creating a bottleneck point in bioinformatic analysis flow. Reconfigurable accelerator can achieve high performance for such computation by providing massive parallelism, but at the expense of programming flexibility and thus has not been commensurately used by practitioners. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a thorough survey of the proposed accelerators by giving a qualitative categorization based on their algorithms and speedup. A comprehensive comparison between work is also presented so as to guide selection for biologist, and to provide insight on future research direction for FPGA scientists

A uniform treatment of order of evaluation and aggregate update

The article presents an algorithm for the destructive update optimization in first-order lazy functional languages. The main component of the method is a new static analysis of the order of evaluation of expressions which, compared to other published work, has a much lower complexity and is not restricted to pure lazy evaluation. The other component, which we call reduction to variables, is a method of detecting the variables which denote locations where the result of an expression might be stored.Starting with the operational semantics of the language, we introduce some markers for the values in the basic domain. By choosing appropriately the set of markers M and the method of propagating them during evaluation, we can extract some property of the evaluation in which an expression can participate by looking at the marker of its value. We then define an equivalent denotational semantics and derive the above analyses, in a uniform way, by abstract interpretation over a subdomain of P(M[perpendicular]).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30571/1/0000206.pd

Concepts of functioning and health important to people with systemic sclerosis: a qualitative study in four European countries

OBJECTIVE: To describe the experiences of people with systemic sclerosis (SSc) in different European countries of functioning and health and to link these experiences to the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to develop a common understanding from a bio-psycho-social perspective. METHOD: A qualitative multicentre study with focus-group interviews was performed in four European countries: Austria, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland. The qualitative data analysis followed a modified form of 'meaning condensation' and the concepts that emerged in the analysis were linked to the ICF. RESULTS: 63 people with SSc participated in 13 focus groups. In total, 86 concepts were identified. 32 (37%) of these were linked to the ICF component body functions and structures, 21 (24%) to activities and participation, 26 (30%) to environmental factors, 6 (7%) to personal factors and 1 (1%) to the health condition itself. 19 concepts (22%) were identified in all four countries and included impaired hand function, household activities, paid work, drugs, climate and coldness, support from others and experiences with healthcare institutions, non-pharmacological treatment, social security and benefits. CONCLUSION: Concepts identified in all four countries could be used for guiding clinical assessment, as well as interdisciplinary team care and rheumatological rehabilitation for patients with SSc. For a full understanding of the aspects of the disease that were most relevant to people with SSc, people with SSc from multiple countries needed to be involved

Doctoral thesis recital (piano)

textSonata for clarinet and piano / F. Poulenc -- Knoxville: Summer of 1915 / S. Barber -- Premiere rhapsodie for clarinet and piano / C. Debussy -- Sonata for alto saxophone and piano, op. 19 / P. Creston.Musi

Issues regarding environmental protection in Romania

The “environmental protection” activity in our country should be approached by taking into consideration its entire complexity, and the most reliable solutions may be provided only by direct and permanent reference to the vast issue of social development in its entirety. The present work aims to draw attention towards pollution, the main cause of environmental deterioration in Romania, as well as towards the management of waste materials, while taking into account the national strategy. In Romania, environmental protection is a distinct domain of the national policy, establishing the priority objectives by “The National Strategy for Environmental Protection”, according to the communitarian strategy, as well as to the tendencies and initiatives existing at global level. Our country’s efforts over the past years with respect to environmental protection are very important in the framework of contemporary economy and are reflected in the expenses incurred for environmental protection