A study on acoustic emission signal propagation of a small size multi-cylinder diesel engine

Acoustic emission has been found effective in offering earlier fault detection and improving identification capabilities of faults. However, the sensors are inherently uncalibrated. This paper presents a source to sensor paths calibration technique which can lead to diagnosis of faults in a small size multi-cylinder diesel engine. Preliminary analysis of the acoustic emission (AE) signals is outlined, including time domain, time-frequency domain, and the root mean square (RMS) energy. The results reveal how the RMS energy of a source propagates to the adjacent sensors. The findings lead to allocate the source and estimate its inferences to the adjacent sensor, and finally help to diagnose the small size diesel engines by minimising the crosstalk from multiple cylinders

Small Business Survival: A Study of Scottish Rural Hotels, Volume One

Five years ago I began my quest to explain the survival of small hotels in remote parts of rural Scotland. Not only did this provide new insights into small hotel survival but it has also identified fundamental survival mechanisms for many small businesses operating in the service sector of the economy. I have called this the "Familial Economic Unit". Although at the outset my main objective was to achieve a greater understanding of small business survival I believe that the main contribution of this thesis is the creation of a more satisfactory methodology for the analysis and interpretation of different types of qualitative data. This methodology I have named "The Qualitative Coding Matrix"

Small Business Survival: A Study of Scottish Rural Hotels, Volume Two

Abstract Not Provided

Rural Elder Care Coordination on Cape Cod: A Community-Based Approach to Closing the Gaps

One quarter of the population of Cape Cod is over age 65, and in the eight outermost towns on the peninsula of Cape Cod, known as the Lower and Outer Cape, the challenges of caring for an older population are compounded by the effects of rural isolation. As many residents have chosen to “age in place” with little family or social support, medical and behavioral health needs often go unaddressed due to the lack of access to needed healthcare and supporting services that plagues underserved rural areas. Outer Cape Health Services (OCHS), a federally-qualified community health center and the primary medical and behavioral health provider in the area, has established a home visit program to reach isolated patients who may otherwise be denied access to these services. This program is lead by the Care Coordination team, which collaborates with local Councils on Aging, the Visiting Nurses Association, EMS, and other community resources to identify and engage these complex, high-acuity patients and provide wrap-around services. However, gaps remain in communication among agencies regarding existing and potential cases. Additionally, little data exist on the health challenges faced by this underserved population, and how care coordination can better address medical and psychosocial needs. To address these gaps, a cross-departmental team at OCHS has begun a community-based research project with the goal of developing a network of consumers, providers and agencies to develop research questions and collaborate on interventions. The team is in the process of identifying key stakeholders and developing community-building strategies

Outer Cape Community Resource Navigator Program: Rural Community Engagement-Driven Service Delivery

Moderator: Andy Lowe, Director of Program Management Resources, Outer Cape Health Services Presenters: Marta “Dikke” Hansen, MSW, Director of Behavioral Health Andrew Jorgensen, MD, Associate Medical Director Session Description The Outer Cape Cod, Massachusetts region is famed for its beauty as a summer vacation destination. For many residents and migrant workers serving the tourism industry; however, the intersection of isolation, little affordable housing, and limited transportation options can exacerbate problems due to mental health, substance abuse, and co-occurring conditions. Police, emergency responders, and EDs encounter this at-risk population disproportionately. Outer Cape Health Services, the local FQHC, proposed a novel solution: a Community Resource Navigator (CRN) program. The CRN Navigator works with community partners to identify at-risk individuals, engage them right in the community, and guide them to appropriate services/treatment. A modified Self-Sufficiency Matrix based on evidence from other Navigator programs is used as a tool to prioritize needs. The Navigator then helps clients attach themselves to options that make sense. The CRN program is a departure from classical case management approaches that features a light touch, with contact in the community rather than requiring clients to “come in” to the health center. A unique approach is that the Navigator uses a community-donated bicycle to pedal her way around the narrow Provincetown streets which can become virtually impassable during the busy summer tourism season. In addition, the Navigator sees clients in safe, accessible public spaces such as the public library. A critical success factor is community engagement that builds effective relationships with community partners such as police, EMTs, councils on aging, community mental health providers, etc. Since beginning the CRN program, data has been collected that provides some unexpected insights into how the Community Navigator approach can be both an outcome- and cost-effective alternative to traditional case management or social worker-oriented interventions. In addition, the CRN program is proposed as the basis for a research initiative under the auspices of the University of Massachusetts Medical School Center for Clinical and Translational Science

Validation of an ensemble modelling system for climate projections for the northwest European shelf seas

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a modelling system used to represent the northwest European shelf seas. Variants of the coupled atmosphere–ocean global climate model, HadCM3, were run under conditions of historically varying concentrations of greenhouse gases and other radiatively active constituents. The atmospheric simulation for the shelf sea region and its surrounds was downscaled to finer spatial scales using a regional climate model (HadRM3); these simulations were then used to drive a river routing scheme (TRIP). Together, these provide the atmospheric, oceanic and riverine boundary conditions to drive the shelf seas model POLCOMS. Additionally, a shelf seas simulation was driven by the ERA-40 reanalysis in place of HadCM3. We compared the modelling systems output against a sea surface temperature satellite analysis product, a quality controlled ocean profile dataset and values of volume transport through particular ocean sections from the literature. In addition to assessing model drift with a pre-industrial control simulation the modelling system was evaluated against observations and the reanalysis driven simulation. We concluded that the modelling system provided an excellent (good) representation of the spatial patterns of temperature (salinity). It provided a good representation of the mean temperature climate, and a sufficient representation of the mean salinity and water column structure climate. The representation of the interannual variability was sufficient, while the overall shelf-wide circulation was qualitatively good. From this wide range of metrics we judged the modelling system fit for the purpose of providing centennial climate projections for the northwest European shelf seas

What Happens to Digital Feedback? Studying the Use of a Feedback Capture Platform by Care Organisations

In this paper we report on a four-month long field trial of ThoughtCloud, a feedback collection platform that allows people to leave ratings and audio or video responses to simple prompts. ThoughtCloud was trialled with four organisations providing care services for people with disabilities. We conducted interviews with staff and volunteers that used ThoughtCloud before, during and after its deployment, and workshops with service users and staff. While the collection of feedback was high, only one organisation regularly reviewed and responded to collected opinions. Furthermore, tensions arose around data access and sharing, and the mismatch of values between ‘giving voice’ and the capacity for staff to engage in feedback practices. We contribute insights into the challenges faced in using novel technologies in resource constrained organisations, and discuss opportunities for designs that give greater agency to service users to engage those that care for them in reflecting and responding to their opinions

Resource heterogeneity and the evolution of public-goods cooperation

Authors thank NERC, BBSRC, AXA research fund, Royal Society (AB & AG) and ERC 370 (AG) for funding.Heterogeneity in resources is a ubiquitous feature of natural landscapes affecting many aspects of biology. However, the effect of environmental heterogeneity on the evolution of cooperation has been less well studied. Here, using a mixture of theory and experiments measuring siderophore production by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model for public goods based cooperation, we explore the effect of heterogeneity in resource availability. We show that cooperation in metapopulations that were spatially heterogeneous in terms of resources can be maintained at a higher level than in homogeneous metapopulations of the same average resource value. The results can be explained by a positive covariance between fitness of cooperators, population size, and local resource availability, which allowed cooperators to have a disproportionate advantage within the heterogeneous metapopulations. These results suggest that natural environmental variation may help to maintain cooperation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The UCSC Archaeal Genome Browser

As more archaeal genomes are sequenced, effective research and analysis tools are needed to integrate the diverse information available for any given locus. The feature-rich UCSC Genome Browser, created originally to annotate the human genome, can be applied to any sequenced organism. We have created a UCSC Archaeal Genome Browser, available at , currently with 26 archaeal genomes. It displays G/C content, gene and operon annotation from multiple sources, sequence motifs (promoters and Shine-Dalgarno), microarray data, multi-genome alignments and protein conservation across phylogenetic and habitat categories. We encourage submission of new experimental and bioinformatic analysis from contributors. The purpose of this tool is to aid biological discovery and facilitate greater collaboration within the archaeal research community