The SaPPART COST Action: Towards Positioning Integrity for Road Transport

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is becoming one of the main components supporting Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and value-added services in road transport and personal mobility. The use of GNSS is expected to grow significantly due to improvements in positioning performance, with positive impacts such as: finding the optimal route; improving traffic and travel efficiency as well as safety and security; reducing congestion and optimizing fuel consumption. The deployment of mission critical applications needs high reliability in the positioning information. However, the positioning reliability is not easy to achieve because of the heterogeneous quality of the GNSS signal, which is highly influenced by the road environment and the operational scenario of the application. It is important to understand the requirements and performance GNSS can achieve for various road transport applications. This paper is presenting the SaPPART COST Action on the Satellite Positioning Performance Assessment for Road Transport. It introduces the goal and the framework of the Action with the research programme and some related activities dedicated to dissemination and supporting standardisation working groups

Mechanical failure analysis of thin film transistor devices on steel and polyimide substrates for flexible display applications

The crack onset strain (COS) of 4-level thin film transistor (TFT) devices on both steel foils and thin polyimide (PI) films was investigated using tensile experiments carried out in situ in an optical microscope. Cracks initiated first within the SiO2 insulator layer for both types of substrates. The COS was found to be equal to 1.15% and 0.24% for steel and PI, respectively. The influence of loading direction on failure of the TFT stack with anisotropic geometry was moreover found to be considerable, leading to recommendations for backplane design. The large difference in critical strain of the SiO2 layer on the two substrates was analyzed using an energy release rate approach, and found to result from differences in layer/substrate mechanical contrast and in internal stress state. Based on this analysis a correlation between layer/substrate elastic contrast and tensile failure behavior was devised. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Variable stars towards the bulge of M31: the AGAPE catalogue

We present the AGAPE astrometric and photometric catalogue of 1579 variable stars in a 14'x10' field centred on M31. This work is the first survey devoted to variable stars in the bulge of M31. The R magnitudes of the objects and the B-R colours suggest that our sample is dominated by red long-period variable stars (LPV), with a possible overlap with Cepheid-like type II stars. Twelve nova candidates are identified. Correlations with other catalogues suggest that 2 novae could be recurrent novae and provide possible optical counterparts for 2 supersoft X-ray sources candidates observed with Chandra.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, accepted for publication in A&

The assessment of spirituality and religiousness in schizophrenia.

To assess religious coping in schizophrenia, we developed and tested a clinical grid, as no validated questionnaire exists for this population. One hundred fifteen outpatients were interviewed. Results obtained by 2 clinicians were compared. Religion was central in the lives of 45% of patients, 60% used religion extensively to cope with their illness. Religion is a multifaceted construct. Principal component analysis elicited 4 factors: subjective dimension, collective dimension, synergy with psychiatric treatment, and ease of talking about religion with psychiatrist. Different associations were found between these factors and psychopathology, substance abuse, and psychosocial adaptation. The high prevalence of spirituality and religious coping clearly indicates the necessity of addressing spirituality in patient care. Our clinical grid is suitable for this purpose. It proved its applicability to a broad diversity of religious beliefs, even pathological ones. Interjudge reliability and construct validity were high and specific training is not required

DSR 15 T, a system for the automatic derivation of a digital terrain model

The Institute of Photogrammetry has developed a peripheral system for the automatic derivation of digital terrain models for the analytical plotter Kern DSR 15; this project is carried out in close collaboration with Leica AG. The principal component of the system is a parallel processor based on Transputer technology. The correlation process itself runs off-line on the Transputer system according to the Multi-Templet-Matching procedure. In a second phase, the results of the image correlation are smoothed during a process which also filters out the terrain obstacles. This process runs completely automatically. The analytical plotter DSR 15 is used for the digitalization of aerial photographs and for the control and possible revision of digital terrain models; consequently, the data are integrated into an information system. The results of the image correlation can also be used for the production of digital orthophotos. The procedure has been conceived for large-scale photographs (-1:5000); according to various precision analyses, a height precision smaller than 0.1% of the flying height can be obtained