349 research outputs found
The development of a rich multimedia training environment for crisis management: using emotional affect to enhance learning
PANDORA is an EU FP7-funded project developing a novel training and learning environment for Gold Commanders, individuals who carry executive responsibility for the services and facilities identified as strategically critical e.g. Police, Fire, in crisis management strategic planning situations. A key part of the work for this project is considering the emotional and behavioural state of the trainees, and the creation of more realistic, and thereby stressful, representations of multimedia information to impact on the decision-making of those trainees. Existing training models are predominantly paper-based, table-top exercises, which require an exercise of imagination on the part of the trainees to consider not only the various aspects of a crisis situation but also the impacts of interventions, and remediating actions in the event of the failure of an intervention. However, existing computing models and tools are focused on supporting tactical and operational activities in crisis management, not strategic. Therefore, the PANDORA system will provide a rich multimedia information environment, to provide trainees with the detailed information they require to develop strategic plans to deal with a crisis scenario, and will then provide information on the impacts of the implementation of those plans and provide the opportunity for the trainees to revise and remediate those plans. Since this activity is invariably multi-agency, the training environment must support group-based strategic planning activities and trainees will occupy specific roles within the crisis scenario. The system will also provide a range of non-playing characters (NPC) representing domain experts, high-level controllers (e.g. politicians, ministers), low-level controllers (tactical and operational commanders), and missing trainee roles, to ensure a fully populated scenario can be realised in each instantiation. Within the environment, the emotional and behavioural state of the trainees will be monitored, and interventions, in the form of environmental information controls and mechanisms impacting on the stress levels and decisionmaking capabilities of the trainees, will be used to personalise the training environment. This approach enables a richer and more realistic representation of the crisis scenario to be enacted, leading to better strategic plans and providing trainees with structured feedback on their performance under stress
Quantitative analysis of ruminal methanogenic microbial populations in beef cattle divergent in phenotypic residual feed intake (RFI) offered contrasting diets
peer-reviewedBackground
Methane (CH4) emissions in cattle are an undesirable end product of rumen methanogenic fermentative activity as they are associated not only with negative environmental impacts but also with reduced host feed efficiency. The aim of this study was to quantify total and specific rumen microbial methanogenic populations in beef cattle divergently selected for residual feed intake (RFI) while offered (i) a low energy high forage (HF) diet followed by (ii) a high energy low forage (LF) diet. Ruminal fluid was collected from 14 high (H) and 14 low (L) RFI animals across both dietary periods. Quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis was conducted to quantify the abundance of total and specific rumen methanogenic microbes. Spearman correlation analysis was used to investigate the association between the relative abundance of methanogens and animal performance, rumen fermentation variables and diet digestibility.
Results
Abundance of methanogens, did not differ between RFI phenotypes. However, relative abundance of total and specific methanogen species was affected (P < 0.05) by diet type, with greater abundance observed while animals were offered the LF compared to the HF diet.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that differences in abundance of specific rumen methanogen species may not contribute to variation in CH4 emissions between efficient and inefficient animals, however dietary manipulation can influence the abundance of total and specific methanogen species.Funding for the development and main work of this research was provided
under the National Development Plan, through the Research Stimulus Fund, administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Ireland RSF 05 224
Work probability distribution and tossing a biased coin
We show that the rare events present in dissipated work that enters Jarzynski
equality, when mapped appropriately to the phenomenon of large deviations found
in a biased coin toss, are enough to yield a quantitative work probability
distribution for Jarzynski equality. This allows us to propose a recipe for
constructing work probability distribution independent of the details of any
relevant system. The underlying framework, developed herein, is expected to be
of use in modelling other physical phenomena where rare events play an
important role.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures
Science & Technology based Entrepreneurship Development
The transformational role of entrepreneurship for socio-economic development is well documented:
entrepreneurs apply innovative solutions to address local issues leading to creative destruction of the
status quo, that has a multiplier effect on enhancing employment and income generation, supporting
local economic growth, creating knowledge clusters and enhancing national competitiveness
Microwave assisted heterogeneous catalysis: effects of varying oxygen concentrations on the oxidative coupling of methane
The oxidative coupling of methane was investigated over alumina supported La2O3/CeO2 catalysts under microwave dielectric heating conditions at different oxygen concentrations. It was observed that, at a given temperature using microwave heating, selectivities for both ethane and ethylene were notably higher when oxygen was absent than that in oxygen/methane mixtures. The differences were attributed to the localised heating of microwave radiation resulting in temperature inhomogeneity in the catalyst bed. A simplified model was used to estimate the temperature inhomogeneity; the temperature at the centre of the catalyst bed was 85 °C greater than that at the periphery when the catalyst was heated by microwaves in a gas mixture with an oxygen concentration of 12.5% (v/v), and the temperature difference was estimated to be 168 °C in the absence of oxygen
Information heat engine: converting information to energy by feedback control
In 1929, Leo Szilard invented a feedback protocol in which a hypothetical
intelligence called Maxwell's demon pumps heat from an isothermal environment
and transduces it to work. After an intense controversy that lasted over eighty
years; it was finally clarified that the demon's role does not contradict the
second law of thermodynamics, implying that we can convert information to free
energy in principle. Nevertheless, experimental demonstration of this
information-to-energy conversion has been elusive. Here, we demonstrate that a
nonequilibrium feedback manipulation of a Brownian particle based on
information about its location achieves a Szilard-type information-energy
conversion. Under real-time feedback control, the particle climbs up a
spiral-stairs-like potential exerted by an electric field and obtains free
energy larger than the amount of work performed on it. This enables us to
verify the generalized Jarzynski equality, or a new fundamental principle of
"information-heat engine" which converts information to energy by feedback
control.Comment: manuscript including 7 pages and 4 figures and supplementary material
including 6 pages and 8 figure
Special Lagrangian cones with higher genus links
For every odd natural number g=2d+1 we prove the existence of a countably
infinite family of special Lagrangian cones in C^3 over a closed Riemann
surface of genus g, using a geometric PDE gluing method.Comment: 48 page
Energy-efficient scheduling of flexible flow shop of composite recycling
Composite recycling technologies have been developed to tackle the increasing use of composites in industry and as a result of restrictions placed on landfill disposal. Mechanical, thermal and chemical approaches are the existing main recycling techniques to recover the fibres. Some optimisation work for reducing energy consumed by above processes has also been developed. However, the resource efficiency of recycling composites at the workshop level has never been considered before. Considering the current trend of designing and optimising a system in parallel and the future needs of the composite recycling business, a flexible flow shop for carbon fibre reinforced composite recycling is modelled. Optimisation approaches based on non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) have been developed to reduce the time and energy consumed for processing composite wastes by searching for the optimal sub-lot splitting and resource scheduling plans. Case studies on different composite recycling scenarios have been conducted to prove the feasibility of the model and the developed algorithm
Chemical Mixtures in Household Environments: In Silico Predictions and In Vitro Testing of Potential Joint Action on PPARγ in Human Liver Cells
There are thousands of chemicals that humans can be exposed to in their everyday environments, the majority of which are currently understudied and lack substantial testing for potential exposure and toxicity. This study aimed to implement in silico methods to characterize the chemicals that co-occur across chemical and product uses in our everyday household environments that also target a common molecular mediator, thus representing understudied mixtures that may exacerbate toxicity in humans. To detail, the Chemical and Products Database (CPDat) was queried to identify which chemicals co-occur across common exposure sources. Chemicals were preselected to include those that target an important mediator of cell health and toxicity, the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), in liver cells that were identified through query of the ToxCast/Tox21 database. These co-occurring chemicals were thus hypothesized to exert potential joint effects on PPARγ. To test this hypothesis, five commonly co-occurring chemicals (namely, benzyl cinnamate, butyl paraben, decanoic acid, eugenol, and sodium dodecyl sulfate) were tested individually and in combination for changes in the expression of PPARγ and its downstream target, insulin receptor (INSR), in human liver HepG2 cells. Results showed that these likely co-occurring chemicals in household environments increased both PPARγ and INSR expression more significantly when the exposures occurred as mixtures vs. as individual chemicals. Future studies will evaluate such chemical combinations across more doses, allowing for further quantification of the types of joint action while leveraging this method of chemical combination prioritization. This study demonstrates the utility of in silico-based methods to identify chemicals that co-occur in the environment for mixtures toxicity testing and highlights relationships between understudied chemicals and changes in PPARγ-associated signaling
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