State-of-the-art in Power Line Communications: from the Applications to the Medium

In recent decades, power line communication has attracted considerable attention from the research community and industry, as well as from regulatory and standardization bodies. In this article we provide an overview of both narrowband and broadband systems, covering potential applications, regulatory and standardization efforts and recent research advancements in channel characterization, physical layer performance, medium access and higher layer specifications and evaluations. We also identify areas of current and further study that will enable the continued success of power line communication technology.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. Special Issue on Power Line Communications and its Integration with the Networking Ecosystem. 201

Love Data @ UH: Collaborating with Campus Partners to Promote Data Services

In this paper, the authors discuss their academic library’s role in promoting collaboration and visibility among various data service providers on campus, including those provided by the library. Bringing together these data providers for a one-day event at the library, Love Data @ UH, speakers and audience members were able to meet and talk about data management, data visualization, and other data-related services provided at University of Houston campus. The authors also discuss how the event was planned, with recommendations for others considering holding a similar event

Subgroups of cancer patients with unique pain and fatigue experiences during chemotherapy

Context. Some cancer patients experience pain and fatigue, whereas others experience only one of the two symptoms. Yet, it is not clear who experiences these unique patterns and why. Objectives. This study aimed to identify subgroups of cancer patients with unique pain and fatigue experiences in two different chemotherapy cycles to examine how selected factors influenced subgroup membership and identify how subgroups differed in concurrently measured functional limitation outcome. Methods. The sample included 276 patients with diverse cancer types from four U.S. sites. To investigate subgroups, latent profile analyses were performed. Multinomial logistic regression and one-way analysis of variance-type analyses were conducted to examine the influencing variables of subgroup membership and to examine differences among subgroups in patient outcome. Results. The high-pain/high-fatigue (HPHF) and low-pain/low-fatigue subgroups were found at both time points. The low-pain/high-fatigue subgroup was present only in the first chemotherapy cycle. Pain and fatigue levels significantly differentiated subgroups at each time point (all P \u3c 0.05). Across the two time points, experiencing higher depressed mood increased the risk to be in the HPHF subgroup (all P \u3c 0.01). The HPHF subgroup had the most serious limitations in activities (all P \u3c 0.01). Conclusion. This study confirmed the existence of a unique symptom experience of pain and fatigue. This pattern should be acknowledged for symptom assessment and management

Report of large whale restraint workshop

Location: Carriage House, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543. Date: February 7th & 8th 2006A number of large cetacean species are seriously injured and killed by entanglement in fishing gear used in the waters off the eastern United States and Canada. Entanglement most frequently involves rope or lines wrapped around the head, the flippers, body, in the mouth, around the tail flukes or any combination of the aforementioned body parts. Consequences of entanglement are particularly grave for North Atlantic right whales, which currently number about 300 whales and are declining due, in part, to this entanglement-related mortality. Right whales are frequently intractable and are very difficult and potentially unsafe to work with while attempting to disentangle the animal. Modifications and technological advances are needed to control, restrain and overall increase the success rate at which right whales are able to be cut free from entangling gear.National Marine Fisheries Servic

Cratonic Basins as Effective Sediment Barriers in Continent‑Scale Sediment Routing Systems of Paleozoic North America

Provenance studies demonstrate the important control of plate boundary mountain building on continental sediment routing systems. Less well understood is if subsidence and uplift in cratons also has the potential to affect the organization of sediment routing systems on continental scales. New detrital zircon provenance data from the Michigan Basin in the Midcontinent of North America preserve evidence of intrabasin provenance heterogeneity in Cambrian, Ordovician, and middle Devonian strata. These results suggest that cratonic basins serve as effective sediment barriers that prevent mixing within and across basins from 10 to 100 s of millions of years. Internal sediment mixing, sorting, and dispersal may be achieved by a combination of sedimentary processes and inherited low relief topography. These observations are consistent with provenance data sets from eastern Laurentian Midcontinent basins that show locally and regionally variable provenance signatures during the early Paleozoic. By the late Devonian, provenance signatures throughout the basins homogenized, consistent with the emergence of transcontinental sediment transport systems associated with Appalachian orogenesis at the plate margin. These results demonstrate the importance of cratonic basins on local and regional sediment routing systems suggesting that these features may impede the integration of continental-scale sediment routings systems, particularly during periods of plate margin quiescence

Does the use of DACC-coated dressings improve clinical outcomes for hard to heal wounds: a systematic review

Reports of overuse and antimicrobial resistance have fuelled some clinicians to adopt alternative wound dressings termed to be non-medicated or non-antimicrobials, which still claim antimicrobial or antibacterial activity. In this PROSPERO-registered systematic review, we evaluated the in vivo clinical evidence for the effectiveness of DACC-coated dressings in chronic, hard to heal wound-related outcomes. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) Framework was adopted as the template in constructing this systematic review. The PICO format (Population [or patients], Intervention, Comparison [control], Outcome/s) was used to identify key clinical questions in determining patient outcomes under two domains (infection control and wound healing). A systematic search was performed in PubMed, OVID, Cochrane Library, clinical trial registries and data sources from independent committees. Abstracts of all studies were screened independently by two reviewers, with six further reviewers independently assessing records proceeding to full review. The authors rated the quality of evidence for each of the outcomes critical to decision making. After excluding duplicates, 748 records were screened from the databases, and 13 records were sought for full review. After full review, we excluded a further three records, leaving ten records for data extraction. Three records were narrative reviews, three systematic reviews, two prospective non-comparative before/after studies, one prospective head-to-head comparator cohort study and one retrospective head-to-head comparator cohort study. No RCTs or case versus control studies were identified. The overall quality of clinical evidence for the use of DACC-coated dressing to improve wound infection and wound healing outcomes was assessed as very low. There is an urgent unmet need to perform appropriately designed RCTs or case–control studies. The extracted data provide no clarity and have limited to no evidence to support that using a DACC-coated dressing improves wound infection or wound healing outcomes. Further, there is no evidence to suggest this therapy is either superior to standard of wound care or equivocal to topical antimicrobial agents in the management of infected hard to heal wounds.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Energy efficiency campaign for residential housing at the Fort Lewis army installation

In FY1999, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory conducted an energy efficiency campaign for residential housing at the Fort Lewis Army Installation near Tacoma, Washington. Preliminary weather-corrected calculations show energy savings of 10{percent} from FY98 for energy use in family housing. This exceeded the project's goal of 3{percent}. The work was funded by the U.S. DOEs Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The project adapted FEMP's national ``You Have the Power Campaign'' at the local level, tailoring it to the military culture. The applied research project was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of tailored, research-based strategies to promote energy conservation in military family housing. In contrast to many energy efficiency efforts, the campaign focused entirely on actions residents could take in their own homes, as opposed to technology or housing upgrades. Behavioral change was targeted because residents do not pay their own utility bills; thus other motivations must drive personal energy conservation. This campaign augments ongoing energy savings from housing upgrades carried out by Fort Lewis. The campaign ran from September 1998 through August 1999. The campaign strategy was developed based on findings from previous research and on input from residents and officials at Fort Lewis. Energy use, corrected to account for weather differences, was compared with the previous year's use. Survey responses from 377 of Fort Lewis residents of occupied housing showed that the campaign was moderately effective in promoting behavior change. Of those who were aware of the campaign, almost all said they were now doing one or more energy-efficient things that they had not done before. Most people were motivated by the desire to do the right thing and to set a good example for their children. They were less motivated by other factors

M.O.I.S.T. concept for the local therapy of chronic wounds: an international update

Chronic wounds remain a significant clinical challenge both for those affected and for healthcare systems. The treatment is often comprised and complex. All patients should receive wound care that is integrated into a holistic approach involving local management that addresses the underlying etiology and provides for gold standard therapy to support healing, avoid complications and be more cost effective. There have been significant advances in medicine over the last few decades. The development of new technologies and therapeutics for the local treatment of wounds is also constantly increasing. To help standardize clinical practice with regard to the multitude of wound products, the M.O.I.S.T. concept was developed by a multidisciplinary expert group. The M stands for moisture balance, O for oxygen balance, I for infection control, S for supporting strategies, and T for tissue management. Since the M.O.I.S.T. concept, which originated in the German-speaking countries, is now intended to provide healthcare professionals with an adapted instrument to be used in clinical practice, and a recent update to the concept has been undertaken by a group of interdisciplinary experts to align it with international standards. The M.O.I.S.T. concept can now be used internationally both as an educational tool and for the practical implementation of modern local treatment concepts for patients with chronic wounds and can also be used in routine clinical practice.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Identifying Structural Flow Defects in Disordered Solids Using Machine-Learning Methods

We use machine-learning methods on local structure to identify flow defects—or particles susceptible to rearrangement—in jammed and glassy systems. We apply this method successfully to two very different systems: a two-dimensional experimental realization of a granular pillar under compression and a Lennard-Jones glass in both two and three dimensions above and below its glass transition temperature. We also identify characteristics of flow defects that differentiate them from the rest of the sample. Our results show it is possible to discern subtle structural features responsible for heterogeneous dynamics observed across a broad range of disordered materials