958 research outputs found
User Behavior Clustering Based Method for EV Charging Forecast
The increasing adoption of electric vehicles poses new problems for the electrical distribution network. For this reason, proper electric vehicle forecasting will be of fundamental importance for a predictive energy management system, which could greatly help the operation of the grid. This paper proposes a comprehensive novel methodology to forecast single charging sessions of electric vehicle and the resulting cumulative energy forecast of the charging infrastructure. Historical charging sessions are first clustered on the basis of similar user characteristics and their respective probability density functions are defined. From this, every charging session is predicted with a triplet of parameters, namely the arrival time, the charging duration and the average power expected during the process. The proposed method has been evaluated by considering a real case study. The results showed the ability to greatly improve the accuracy with respect to the chosen benchmark, both in terms of energy required by the station and the predicted number of charging sessions. The overall performance measured by Skill Score is 0.37 for the year 2019
Anti-predator behaviour of the red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa (Galliformes: Phasianidae) to simulated terrestrial and aerial predators
Disorientation, self-awareness and ongoing learning: student midwives’ experiences of clinical placements in Italy
Objective: To explore student midwives’ perspectives, experiences and concerns regarding clinical placements in the Italian setting.
Design: A qualitative phenomenological study was undertaken, with data collected through semi-structured interviews and diaries. Ethical approval was obtained. Data analysis was conducted using a thematic analysis approach.
Setting: One university in Northern Italy including a midwifery undergraduate programme.
Participants: Purposeful sample of 19 third-year student midwives.
Findings: Four themes emerged from the data: a) becoming a midwife: disorientation, self-awareness and ongoing learning; b) mentor as key figure; c) practice and theory: a ‘chicken and egg’ situation; d) clinical placements: a window on the uniqueness of the midwifery profession.
Student midwives reported a journey through different learning phases within clinical placements, from feeling disoriented while facing initial challenges in the first year of the course to having increasing awareness of their role in the second and third year of the programme. The phase of disorientation was mainly due to not being aware of the theoretical evidence behind practice, not feeling part of the team, not knowing what their role was and lack of appropriate supervision from mentors. A positive relationship with the mentor encouraged students to share perspectives and doubts, stimulating a problem solving approach. The students found it helpful when the mentor involved them in the decision making and praised them when they deserved it. A good rapport with the midwife was reported by the participants as inspiring self-confidence and cognitive enquiries; it also allowed the students to feel part of the multidisciplinary team. An overall sense of ongoing learning was still present at the end of the midwifery programme.
Key conclusions and implications for practice: Continuity of mentorship and mentors’ commitment to supporting students emerged as key aspects for a positive and fruitful learning experience within practice settings. Other pivotal elements to be considered by mentors are making the students feel welcome and part of the team; orienting them on the first day of placement; allowing some time for familiarisation with the placement area and clinical policies; involving the students in the decision-making process and care planning/implementation/ evaluation. Appropriate national mandatory training should be put in place for mentors to allow a more effective learning experience in practice settings for student midwives
Long-term Conversation Analysis: Exploring Utility and Privacy
The analysis of conversations recorded in everyday life requires privacy
protection. In this contribution, we explore a privacy-preserving feature
extraction method based on input feature dimension reduction, spectral
smoothing and the low-cost speaker anonymization technique based on McAdams
coefficient. We assess the utility of the feature extraction methods with a
voice activity detection and a speaker diarization system, while privacy
protection is determined with a speech recognition and a speaker verification
model. We show that the combination of McAdams coefficient and spectral
smoothing maintains the utility while improving privacy.Comment: Submitted to ITG Conference on Speech Communication, 202
Day Ahead Electric Load Forecast: A Comprehensive LSTM-EMD Methodology and Several Diverse Case Studies
AX J1749.1-2733 and AX J1749.2-2725 - the close pair of X-ray pulsars behind the Galactic Center: an optical identification
Two faint X-ray pulsars, AX J1749.2-2725 and AX J1749.1-2733, located in the
direction to the Galactic Center, were studied in detail using data of
INTEGRAL, XMM-Newton and Chandra observatories in X-rays, the SOFI/NTT
instrument in infrared and the RTT150 telescope in optics. X-ray positions of
both sources were determined with the uncertainty better than ~1 arcsec, that
allowed us to identify their infrared counterparts. From the subsequent
analysis of infrared and optical data we conclude that counterparts of both
pulsars are likely massive stars of B0-B3 classes located behind the Galactic
Center at distances of 12-20 kpc, depending on the type, probably in further
parts of galactic spiral arms. In addition, we investigated the extinction law
towards the galactic bulge and found that it is significantly different from
standard one.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, will be published in MNRA
Recent activity of the Be/X-ray binary system SAX J2103.5+4545
Aims. We present a multiwavelength study of the Be/X-ray binary system SAX
J2103.5+4545 with the goal of better characterizing the transient behaviour of
this source.
Methods. SAX J2103.5+4545 was observed by Swift-XRT four times in 2007 from
April 25 to May 5, and during quiescence in 2012 August 31. In addition, this
source has been monitored from the ground-based astronomical observatories of
El Teide (Tenerife, Spain), Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Spain) and Sierra
Nevada (Granada, Spain) since 2011 August, and from the TUBITAK National
Observatory (Antalya, Turkey) since 2009 June. We have performed spectral and
photometric temporal analyses in order to investigate the different states
exhibited by SAX J2103.5+4545.
Results. In X-rays, an absorbed power law model provided the best fit for all
the XRT spectra. An iron-line feature at ~6.42 keV was present in all the
observations except for that taken during quiescence in 2012. The photon
indexes are consistent with previous studies of SAX J2103.5+4545 in high/low
luminosity states. Pulsations were found in all the XRT data from 2007
(2.839(2) mHz; MJD 54222.02), but not during quiescence. Both optical outbursts
in 2010 and 2012 lasted for about 8/9 months (as the one in 2007 probably did
and the current one in 2014 might do) and were most probably caused by mass
ejection events from the Be star that eventually fed the circumstellar disc.
All of these outbursts started about 3 months before the triggering of the
X-ray activity, and about the same period before the maximum of the H_alpha
line equivalent width (in emission) was reached at only ~ -5 \AA. In this work
we found that the global correlation between the BV variability and the X-ray
intensity was also observed at longer wavelengths in the IR domain.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, and online material (2 tables). Submitted to A&A
in 2014 Januar
Anti-predator behaviour of the red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa (Galliformes: Phasianidae) to simulated terrestrial and aerial predators
This study is intended to investigate the differences in anti-predator behavioural and acoustic response to terrestrial and aerial predators as well as the behavioural differences between sexes in the red-legged partridge. To this aim we observed the response of 114 partridge (57 males and 57 females) to dummy terrestrial and aerial predators, a raptor and a fox. We divided behavioural responses to predators into four mutually exclusive categories: vigilance, freezing, escape and non-anti-predator behaviours. We also recorded and analysed the vocalizations emitted during tests. The animals reacted differently to aerial and terrestrial stimuli. The reactions elicited by the terrestrial predator were ranked as follows: vigilance, escape, non-anti-predator behaviours, and freezing. Those elicited by the aerial predator were ranked as follows: vigilance, freezing, escape and non-anti-predator behaviours. Vigilance and escape were elicited more frequently by the terrestrial predator than by the aerial predator (vigilance: p 0.001; escape: p 0.001). Freezing was the most frequent behaviour following the appearance of the aerial predator (p 0.001). In fact, freezing may represent an effective strategy in an open space, combining camouflage from and detection by the predator. On the other hand, vigilance is an effective behaviour to detect and avoid a terrestrial predator hunting by ambush. We did not find clear-cut differences between sexes. The analysis of vocalizations revealed that the fox and the raptor elicited significantly different calls (p = 0.003); the fox evoked significantly more vocalizations than the raptor (p 0.001), differing in addition in frequency parameters. Thus partridges not only discriminate between aerial and terrestrial predators and behave consequently, but are also able to tune alarm calls in relation to the context of predation
Occupational risks in midwifery. From Bernardino Ramazzini to modern times
Occupational risks are often underestimated in midwifery. It is not commonly known that they were originally described by the Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714) at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Our aim was to describe occupational risks in midwifery from Ramazzini to modern times. The original text by Bernardino Ramazzini was analyzed. A review of modern scientific papers on occupational risks in midwifery was conducted. Ramazzini identified two major occupational risks in midwifery: infections and awkward postures. Modern literature seems to agree with his considerations, focusing on infection, use of universal protection and personal protective equipment, and musculoskeletal problems. Modern studies also evidenced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that was probably postulated by Ramazzini himself. The poor number of papers in literature on midwives’ occupational risks evidences a lack of interest towards this issue. Prevention should therefore be emphasized in this field, so high-quality studies on occupational risks in midwifery are neede
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