3D DATA INTEGRATION FOR WEB BASED OPEN SOURCE WebGL INTERACTIVE VISUALISATION

Recent advances in open-source geospatial technologies in WebGIS allowed the visualization of a 3D complex environment on the web, exploiting realistic Globe reproduction of the real territorial asset. At the same time, in the field of gaming technologies, the new possibilities offered by open-source WebGL JavaScript libraries allowed the creation of Virtual Reality navigation models on the web. The integration between 3D GIS globe navigation models and VR environment navigation is a solution that offers a further level of detail in web navigation, exploiting the capabilities of web browsers in the best way. This research further contributes to this field, showing a workflow to integrate different 3D data in a VR and 3D WebGIS navigation model. The case study for this research is the new building of the University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of Enschede (The Netherlands). This work tests the online integration of variety of 3D input data that can lead to different Levels of Details (LoD) of the buildings inside the Globe-based WebGIS platform. The developed solution works on desktop and mobile devices using the capabilities of the most common web browsers, avoiding any software installation. The result of this work is based on completely open-source solutions that offers the possibility to navigate within a 3D model, which is useful for citizens, governmental or private institutions in decision-making processes. This work represents a first step towards the ambition to generate a web Digital Twin platform to combine datasets from different sources in a unique open-source solution

Resistive damping implementation as a method to improve controllability in stiff ohmic RF-MEMS switches

This paper presents in detail the entire procedure of calculating the bias resistance of an ohmic RF-MEMS switch, controlled under resistive damping (charge drive technique). In case of a very stiff device, like the North Eastern University switch, the actuation control under resistive damping is the only way to achieve controllability. Due to the short switching time as well as the high actuation voltage, it is not practical to apply a tailored control pulse (voltage drive control technique). Implementing a bias resistor of 33 MΩ in series with the voltage source, the impact velocity of the cantilever has been reduced 80 % (13.2 from 65.9 cm/s), eliminating bouncing and high initial impact force during the pull-down phase. However, this results in an affordable cost of switching time increase from 2.38 to 4.34 μs. During the release phase the amplitude of bouncing has also been reduced 34 % (174 from 255 nm), providing significant improvement in both switching operation phases of the switch. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Therapeutic Effectiveness of Nutrition Therapy in Pediatric Patients with Chronic Liver Diseases Awaiting Liver Transplantation

Abstract It is important to prevent protein/calorie malnutrition in children with end stage liver diseases prior to transplantation. This study involved 34 patients between the ages of 10 and 156 months (mean value 25.69 months 32.2) (13 females and 21 males) on the liver transplant waiting list. Data collected as of three months before transplant and up to ten months after the procedure concerned gender, age, weight, height, Pediatric End Stage Liver Disease Score, baseline pathology, type of nutrition, type of transplant, immunosuppression, pulse steroid therapy, length of stay, and post transplant complications. Linear regression analysis showed that the length of hospital stay was 24.5 days more for females than for males, but also that intensive nutrition therapy shortens this stay for both female patients (P = 0.085) and younger patients (P = 0.023). The study population was divided into two groups according to the different nutritional therapies adopted. The Student’s t-test and Mann-Whitney test evidenced that the group receiving intensive nutrition therapy grew taller compared with the group following an oral diet (mean -1.37 and Prob = 0.043); that females grew taller compared to males (mean -1.65 +/- 0.56); and that there was an increase in height among the children in the group receiving intensive nutrition therapy despite the presence (-1.37 +/- 0.56) or absence (-14.8 +/- 5.44 and Prob = 0.035) of complications, and despite the administration (-1.03 +/- 0.33) or non administration (-1.48 +/- 0.55 and Prob = 0.019) of steroids. Intensive nutrition therapy enhances the velocity of growth in height and shortens the length of hospital stay, thus optimizing the final prognosis of the baseline pathology

Behavior of a Model Dynamical System with Applications to Weak Turbulence

We experimentally explore solutions to a model Hamiltonian dynamical system derived in Colliander et al., 2012, to study frequency cascades in the cubic defocusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation on the torus. Our results include a statistical analysis of the evolution of data with localized amplitudes and random phases, which supports the conjecture that energy cascades are a generic phenomenon. We also identify stationary solutions, periodic solutions in an associated problem and find experimental evidence of hyperbolic behavior. Many of our results rely upon reframing the dynamical system using a hydrodynamic formulation.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure

Theoretical knock-outs on biological networks

Peer reviewedPreprin

A research-informed dialogic-teaching approach to early secondary school mathematics and science: the pedagogical design and field trial of the epiSTEMe intervention

The $\textit{Effecting Principled Improvement in STEM Education [epiSTEMe]}$ project undertook pedagogical research aimed at improving pupil engagement and learning in early secondary school physical science and mathematics. Using principles identified as effective in the research literature and drawing on a range of existing pedagogical resources, the project designed and trialled a classroom intervention, with associated professional development, in a form intended to be suited to implementation at scale. The most distinctive feature of the $\textit{epiSTEMe}$ pedagogical approach is its inclusion of a component of dialogic teaching. Aimed at the first year of secondary education in English schools (covering ages 11–12), the $\textit{epiSTEMe}$ intervention consists of a short introductory module designed to prepare classes for this dialogic teaching component, and topic modules which employ the $\textit{epiSTEMe}$ pedagogical approach to cover two curricular topics in each of science and mathematics. A field trial was conducted over the 2010/2011 school year in 25 volunteer schools, randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Within the intervention group, observation of lessons indicated that the level of dialogic teaching was higher for one of the topic modules than others. Evaluation focused on the effectiveness of the topic modules, each trialled in more than 10 classes containing a total of over 300 pupils, and compared with a group of similar composition. Overall, at this first implementation, learning gains under the $\textit{epiSTEMe}$ intervention were no greater, although for individual topic modules the effects ranged from small negative to small positive. No difference was found between intervention and control groups either in the opinion of pupils about their classroom experience or in changes in their attitude towards subjects.Thanks are due to the Economic and Social Research Council which provided funding for the epiSTEMe project (RES-179-25-0003), to the teachers who generously volunteered to review, pilot and trial versions of the modules, to Christine Howe for her contribution to design and analysis, and to Andy Tolmie and Anna Vignoles for statistical advice.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Taylor & Francis via https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2015.112964

Dry rainfed conditions are key drivers of the effect of conservation tillage and a nitrification inhibitor on N fate and N2O emissions: A field 15N tracing study

The sustainability of rainfed crops under semiarid conditions is threatened by low plant nitrogen (N) recovery as well as the potential loss of reactive N to the environment. A field 15N tracing experiment on barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under rainfed conditions was carried out to study how different tillage management practices and the use of the nitrification inhibitor DMPSA affected the fate of N. The experiment consisted of a factorial combination of tillage (i.e., no tillage, NT, and conventional tillage, T) and fertilizer treatments (unfertilized control and ammonium nitrate, AN, with or without DMPSA). Single-labelled ammonium nitrate (15NH4NO3, 15AN, or NH415NO3, A15N) was applied at top-dressing to microplots at a rate of 80 kg N ha−1. Our results show out that DMPSA modulates the nitrification process from both fertilizer-N and endogenous soil-N (which was the main contributor to plant N uptake and N2O emissions), affecting soil residual N at the end of the cropping period (i.e., higher topsoil retention of 15AN in DMPSA-amended plots). Generally, cumulative N2O emissions from fertilizer were derived from 15AN rather than from A15N, thus confirming the site-specific choice of the source of synthetic N as an effective N2O mitigation strategy. Two months after harvest, a rewetting event produced a remarkable N2O emission peak that drove total cumulative N2O emissions and was also mainly derived from endogenous N. These results suggest that dry seasons could decrease N2O losses after fertilization while causing critical peaks after rewetting, thus potentially limiting the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. The average plant N recovery from the synthetic fertilizer was 22.6%, while the use of DMPSA combined with NT enhanced plant N uptake from endogenous soil-N. This could be a result of the improved crop development and plant N acquisition under NT, consistent with the decrease of soil N retention for A15N in the deeper layer at the end of the experiment in the nontilled plots. This study contributes to the mechanistic understanding of the effect of nitrification inhibitors and tillage on N2O emissions, soil N dynamics and N plant recovery, revealing relevant effects of both management strategies and a critical role of endogenous soil-N under dry rainfed conditions. It can be concluded that, under the conditions of our study, combining DMPSA with NT could help to improve plant N recovery, thus resulting in positive impacts on reactive N loss and climate change mitigation and adaptation

Knowledge, attitudes and self-reported practices of food service staff in nursing homes and long-term care facilities

The aim of this study was to investigate knowledge, attitudes and practices of food service staff in nursing homes and long-term care facilities for the elderly in Sicily, Italy. Association with some demographic and work-related variables was also investigated. This survey provides information and outlines many complex questions concerning the basics of food hygiene. Education level, length of service in the employment and attending courses on food hygiene influenced the knowledge, attitudes and practices of food service staff. This study has evidenced the need for continuous training among food service staff regarding food safety in LTCF and nursing homes

Asymmetric quantum codes on non-orientable surfaces

In this paper, we construct new families of asymmetric quantum surface codes (AQSCs) over non-orientable surfaces of genus $g\geq 2$ by applying tools of hyperbolic geometry. More precisely, we prove that if the genus $g$ of a non-orientable surface is even $(g=2h)$, then the parameters of the corresponding AQSC are equal to the parameters of a surface code obtained from an orientable surface of genus $h$. Additionally, if $S$ is a non-orientable surface of genus $g$, we show that the new surface code constructed on a $\{p, q\}$ tessellation over $S$ has the ratio $k/n$ better than the ratio of an AQSC constructed on the same $\{p, q\}$ tessellation over an orientable surface of the same genus $g$