Adapting dynamically neighbourhood table entry lifetime in wireless sensor networks

International audienceNeighbour discovery and maintenance of neighbourhood tables have importance in wireless sensor networks. Almost every upper layer application such as routing or self-organizing relies on neighbourhood tables. Imprecise tables may lead to failures that may be costly in terms of resources which are very limited in such networks. Neighbourhood tables are achieved thanks to the Hello protocol. Several studies propose smart schemes to dynamically adapt the frequency of Hello messages but none of them investigates the way the refreshment period of entries in table should be adapted. In this paper, we introduce the Neighbourhood Lifetime Algorithm (NLA), the very first algorithm that adapts dynamically the refreshment period of entries in neighbourhood tables, based on the speed of node and the frequency of the Hello message. Our simulation results show and demonstrate the efficiency of NLA and its high performance to keep neighbourhood tables consisten

Development of a microcomputer based design system for air management of buildings

Expert systems are computer programs that seek to mimic human reasoning. Currently, expert systems are being used for the design of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The present work involves developing of several smaller expert systems known as knowledge bases, and integrating them in one simple package. The aim of the research is to develop a such computer code for HVAC system designers which will considerably reduce man-hours during the whole design process, improve the productivity, increase the design quality, and give the customers more options to choose the best and optimum design. This thesis describes the development of a computer code, which has the ability to give all the design requirements for HVAC systems. This work which can be considered as a step towards HVAC Expert Systems, which outlines step by step calculation procedure to determine essential elements of heating and cooling loads such as U-value, air infiltration, solar heat gain, heat storage, psychrometric charts and the sunlit area of the exterior surfaces. The code (HVACSYS) consists of a main menu program and several auxiliary programs for gathering data, completing calculations, and printing project reports. The developed code is also connected with the AutoCAD package to give the final design of the HVAC systems. In the AutoCAD package, a special menu for HVAC systems design has been added (HVACCAD). This menu is developed for customizing the AutoCAD package in order to make the code interactive. Finally, a case study has been considered in which solutions were obtained using an existing package and also the developed package. Comparison of the solutions illustrates the usefulness of the new package adequately

Processo de desenvolvimento de forma farmacêutica sólida : uma revisão bibliográfica

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Itamar Francisco AndreazzaMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências da Saúde, Curso de Graduação em FarmáciaInclui referênciasResumo : Medicamentos são compostos diversos que atuam por diferentes mecanismos de ação a fim de aliviar sintomas e/ou tratar ou prevenir doenças. Apresentam-se nas formas, líquidas, semi-sólidas, gasosas e, principalmente, sólidas. A forma sólida agrega os pós, granulados, cápsulas e comprimidos. Por sua vez, os comprimidos são a forma farmacêutica mais comum devido à sua versatilidade com relação a fatores como resistência, custo de confecção, conservação, entre outros. Dessa forma, o presente trabalho buscou abordar e definir, a partir dos moldes da metodologia Quality by Design (QbD), as etapas de produção para um comprimido sem revestimento à base de um fármaco genérico. Definiu-se que o medicamento apresentaria 50 mg de fármaco e teria em sua composição dois excipientes e dois lubrificantes. O processo de produção foi inicialmente pensado para uma escala laboratorial, levando em consideração os atributos críticos da qualidade, do material e qualificação de fornecedores, visando uma possível transposição da escala. Com relação ao medicamento, determinou-se os estudos de estabilidade, degradação forçada do Insumo Farmacêutico Ativo (IFA), pré-formulação, farmacotécnico e analítico (agregando os parâmetros de teor, umidade, desintegração, peso médio, dureza, dissolução, friabilidade, identificação e atributos físicos). Foram abordadas também as etapas da produção do medicamento em uma escala piloto, incluindo nesta a pesagem de matérias-primas, moagem, padronização granulométrica ,mistura, compressão, embalagem primária e secundária, de forma a estabelecer quais os parâmetros a se seguir e equipamentos utilizados para cada uma. O controle de qualidade do processo foi realizado a nível de produto acabado, produto a granel, embalagem primária e secundária, com os controles críticos de cada um sendo meticulosamente definidos. Previu-se o estabelecimento do prazo de validade do medicamento a partir de estudos de estabilidade acelerado, de longa duração e acompanhamento descritos na Farmacopeia Brasileira 6a edição. A seleção de equipamentos, controles de qualidade, fornecedores e matérias-primas foi idealizada com o intuito de se alcançar uma produção otimizada nos quesitos eficiência, custo, reprodutibilidade, no entanto, sem perder a qualidade.Abstract : Drugs are substances that act by several mechanisms to relieve symptoms or to treat/prevent diseases. These substances are presented as liquid, semi-solids, gaseous but mainly as solids. The solid drugs group contains the powders, granules, capsules and tablets. Tablets are the most common pharmaceutical dosage form because of it’s versatility when it comes to, among other things, physical resistance, production price, and conservation. The present paper sought to address and define, by using the Quality by Design (QbD) methodology, an uncoated tablet with a generic drug production process. It was determined that the tablet would present 50 mg of a generic drug along side two excipients and two lubrificants. The production process was, initially, designed for a laboratory scale, considering quality critical attributes, material critical attributes and supplier qualification, aiming to transpose it. It was established that the tablet would go through stability, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) forced degradation, preformulation, pharmacotechnical and analytical studies (including content, humidity, disintegration, average weight, durability, dissolution, friability, identification and physical attributes informations). The production steps of the drug on a pilot scale were also addressed, including war materials weighing, milling, particle size standardization, mixture, compression, primary and secondary packaging, in order to establish which parameters to follow and the equipment utilized for each one. The process quality control was performed at finished and bulk product, primary and secondary packaging, with the critical controls for each being meticulously defined. The establishment of the product’s shelf life was based on accelerated, longterm, and follow-up stability studies described in the 6th edition of the Brazilian Pharmacopeia. Equipment, quality controls, suppliers and raw material selections was idealized in order to achieve an optimized production in terms of efficiency, cost, reproducibility, however, without losing it’s quality

Messages with Implicit Destinations as Mobile Agents

International audienceApplications running over decentralized systems, distribute their computation on nodes/agents, which exchange data and services through messages. In many cases, the provenance of the data or service is not relevant, and applications can be optimized by choosing the most efficient solution to obtain them. We introduce a frameworkwhich allows messages with intensional destination, which can be seen as restricted mobile agents, specifying the desired service but not the exact node that carries it, leaving to the system the task of evaluating the extensional destination, that is an explicit address for that service. The intensional destinations are defined using queries that are evaluated by other agents while routing. We introduce the Questlog language, which allows to reformulate queries, and express complex strategies to pull distributed data. In addition, intensional addresses offer persistency to dynamic systems with nodes/agents leaving the system. We demonstrate the approach with examples taken from sensor networks, and show some experimental results on the QuestMonitor platform

Seamless Distribution of Data Centric Applications through Declarative Overlays

BDA 2011: 27èmes journées Bases de Données AvancéesWe present an approach based on peer-to-peer overlays which allows to distribute seamlessly data centric applications defined by queries over a centralized database. We consider applications in which the users have access to views, which contain horizontal fragments of the data of interest to them. The peer-to-peer overlays are defined by simple declarative programs in the Netlog language. The communication relies on implicit addresses, which can be evaluated on the fly, and ensure persistence of data in messages. We demonstrate the technique on a multiplayer online game, written in SQL, with players who connect to a mobile ad hoc network through their portable devices. The overlay is defined by a combination of an ad hoc routing protocol, DSDV, together with a DHT. The application runs on the QuestMonitor platform, which allows to monitor the communication between peers, the evolution of the local data stores, as well as the execution of the declarative code.Nous proposons une approche basée sur les réseaux pair à pair pour distribuer de manière transparente des applications définies par des requêtes sur une base de données centralisée. Nous considérons des applications pour lesquelles les utilisateurs ont accès à des vues qui contiennent des fragments horizontaux des données qui les intéressent. Les réseaux logiques sont définis par des programmes déclaratifs simples dans le langage Netlog. La communication repose sur l'usage d'adresses implicites, qui peuvent être évaluées à la volée, et garantissent la persistance des données dans les messages. Nous montrons le fonctionnement du système pour un jeu en ligne multijoueur, joué par des joueurs qui utilisent leurs terminaux portables connectés à un réseau mobile ad hoc. Le réseau logique repose sur un protocole de routage pour réseau ad hoc, DSDV, couplé à une DHT. L'application tourne sur la platforme QuestMonitor, qui permet de contrôler la communication entre pairs, l'évolution des données locales, ainsi que l'exécution du code déclaratif

Principles and recommendations for client information requirements for BIM enabled construction projects in Qatar

Employer's information requirements (EIR) is one of the key early documents in projects using building information modelling (BIM). EIR, introduced by the UK BIM Task Group, sets out information deliverables and the standards and processes to be adopted by the supply chain. It includes a set of requirements and guidelines in three areas namely technical, management and commercial. EIR, which are applicable to the construction industry in Qatar, are not clearly defined despite BIM is increasingly required on projects. This paper aims to develop a set of principles and recommendations for the three areas of the EIR which are applicable to Qatar's construction sector. Following an investigation of current BIM practices in Qatar, a set of general principles and recommendations were proposed and validated for the areas of the client information requirements (CIR) - an adaption of the term EIR as evidenced in the paper. Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Scopu

Crohn’s disease: Activity, complications and treatment. Evaluation using MDCT enterography and endoscopy

AbstractActivity of small bowel inflammatory disease, mainly Crohn’s disease had traditionally been a challenging task for radiologists and gastroenterologists. Conventional radiologic and endoscopic evaluations are frequently hindered by the length and caliber of small bowel loops. Conventional CT plays a significant role in the evaluation of extraenteric manifestations of small bowel disease, although it has a limited role for depicting bowel wall and luminal abnormalities. With the development of CT enterography, evolving new methods for evaluating the small bowel mucosal and submucosal abnormality were considered a byproduct of the recent advances in multidetector-row CT (MDCT) technology. Endoscopic correlation with imaging modalities are complementary tools for the final diagnosis of activity and complications of Crohn’s disease.Our purpose was to evaluate retrospectively the effectiveness of CT enterography for the assessment of the activity as well as diagnosing complications of Crohn’s disease in 25 patients with a complementary role determined by colonoscopy with intubation of the terminal ileum and correlate with disease progression or regression and its treatment

Hierarchy based information requirements for sustainable operations of buildings in Qatar

Information flows in construction projects are generally focused on the needs of the design and construction phases. This creates disruption of workflows across the project stages and in particular with the information handover to the operation stage. The adherence to the clients' requirements for the operation phase of buildings becomes very challenging. A structured information delivery enabled by BIM protocols, established at the project’s inception phase, can help: 1) prevent information loss during the project development; 2) ensure the coordinated delivery of the clients’ requirements as stated at the pre-design stage, and 3) anticipate the impact of client decisions at early project stages on the operational performance of buildings. This research presents a methodology and a decision support system to help obtaining, categorizing and trading off sustainability and facility management values using subjective driven priorities from top-level management. The decision support system will assist, within digitally enabled projects, in translating these priorities into objective parameters and information categories. These can be subsequently included within the project tender and bidders’ BIM Execution Plans. The tool will also help to monitor the performance of the project design with the national sustainability and the client targets as the project progresses. The proposed tool is presented within the context of Qatar but it could be applied in other countries