Embedding the Remote Application Control: Visual API for PDA Programming

PDAs are more and more used as advanced adaptive HEI (human-environment interaction) interfaces, thus enabling their users to easily operate applications remotely running in pervasive computing scenarios. Based on a previous implementation, in this paper we discuss the development of a new set of .NET-compliant Application Programming Interfaces to be used within the Visual Studio IDE. Our main goal is to provide programmers with a set of components to be used with the common drag-and-drop operation, in order to embed a remote application control within an application running on the PDA and vice-versa. The interaction relies on ad-hoc communication protocols over a framework devoted to pair PDAs and remote devices according to their relative position, with no need to use any connection software

Werken met taalportfolio's in het talenonderwijs aan volwassenen

Werken met portfolio’s is in het talenonderwijs (nog) een veelbelovend nieuw instrument om met leerlingen te werken aan taal. Met een taalportfolio kan de gebruiker de eigen taalkennis inschatten en bewijzen van zijn talenkennis verzamelen. Ook kan door het werken met een taalportfolio het verdere leerproces worden gestuurd door de gebruiker zelf, al dan niet met feedback van de docent. De auteurs hebben een taalportfolio voor het hoger onderwijs ontwikkeld. Dit staaat niet op zichzelf, maar past binnen een veel breder Europees project. Het artikel gaat eerst kort in op de achtergronden van het project, gevolgd door het doel en de kenmerken van het Taalportfolio Hoger Onderwijs. Dan beschrijven de auteurs enkele ervaringen opgedaan met het werken met een taalportfolio in het onderwijs Italiaans als tweede taal. Deze praktijkervaringen zijn weliswaar positief maar wijzen toch op het belang van co-evaluatie waarin een combinatie van zelfevaluatie door de student en docentevaluatie geïntegreerd wordt in de lespraktijk

Simulating the LOcal Web (SLOW) -- III: Synchrotron Emission from the Local Cosmic Web

Aims: Detecting diffuse synchrotron emission from the cosmic web is still a challenge for current radio telescopes. We aim to make predictions for the detectability of cosmic web filaments from simulations. Methods: We present the first cosmological MHD simulation of a 500 $h^{-1} c$Mpc volume with an on-the-fly spectral cosmic ray (CR) model. This allows us to follow the evolution of populations of CR electrons and protons within every resolution element of the simulation. We model CR injection at shocks, while accounting for adiabatic changes to the CR population and high energy loss processes of electrons. The synchrotron emission is then calculated from the aged electron population, using the simulated magnetic field, as well as different models for origin and amplification of magnetic fields. We use constrained initial conditions, which closely resemble the local Universe and compare the results of the cosmological volume to zoom-in simulation of the Coma cluster, to study the impact of resolution and turbulent re-acceleration of CRs on the results. Results: We find consistent injection of CRs at accretion shocks onto cosmic web filaments and galaxy clusters. This leads to diffuse emission from filaments of the order $S_\nu \approx 0.1 \: \mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$ for a potential LOFAR observation at 144 MHz, when assuming the most optimistic magnetic field model and the inclusion of an on-the-fly treatment of re-acceleration of electrons by turbulence. The flux can be increased by up-to two orders of magnitude for different choices of CR injection parameters. This can bring the flux within a factor of 10 of the current limits for direct detection. We find a spectral index of the simulated synchrotron emission from filaments of {\alpha} {\approx} 1.0 - 1.5.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures, submitted to A&A. Comments welcome

Generation Gap and the Impact of the Web on Goods Quality Perceptions

This study explores how age and general online shopping experience affect consumer perceptions on product quality uncertainty. Using the survey data collected from 549 consumers, we investigated how they perceive the uncertainty of product quality on six search, experience and credence goods. The ANOVA results show that age and the Web shopping experience of consumers are significant factors. A generation gap is indeed seen for all but one experience good. Web shopping experience is not a significant factor for search goods but is for experience and credence goods. There is an interaction effect between age and Web shopping experience for one credence good. Implications of these results are discussed

Criteria for Pediatric Sepsis-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis by the Pediatric Sepsis Definition Taskforce

OBJECTIVE: To determine the associations of demographic, clinical, laboratory, organ dysfunction, and illness severity variable values with: 1) sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock in children with infection and 2) multiple organ dysfunction or death in children with sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched from January 1, 2004, and November 16, 2020. STUDY SELECTION: Case-control studies, cohort studies, and randomized controlled trials in children greater than or equal to 37-week-old postconception to 18 years with suspected or confirmed infection, which included the terms "sepsis," "septicemia," or "septic shock" in the title or abstract. DATA EXTRACTION: Study characteristics, patient demographics, clinical signs or interventions, laboratory values, organ dysfunction measures, and illness severity scores were extracted from eligible articles. Random-effects meta-analysis was performed. DATA SYNTHESIS: One hundred and six studies met eligibility criteria of which 81 were included in the meta-analysis. Sixteen studies (9,629 patients) provided data for the sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock outcome and 71 studies (154,674 patients) for the mortality outcome. In children with infection, decreased level of consciousness and higher Pediatric Risk of Mortality scores were associated with sepsis/severe sepsis. In children with sepsis/severe sepsis/septic shock, chronic conditions, oncologic diagnosis, use of vasoactive/inotropic agents, mechanical ventilation, serum lactate, platelet count, fibrinogen, procalcitonin, multi-organ dysfunction syndrome, Pediatric Logistic Organ Dysfunction score, Pediatric Index of Mortality-3, and Pediatric Risk of Mortality score each demonstrated significant and consistent associations with mortality. Pooled mortality rates varied among high-, upper middle-, and lower middle-income countries for patients with sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Strong associations of several markers of organ dysfunction with the outcomes of interest among infected and septic children support their inclusion in the data validation phase of the Pediatric Sepsis Definition Taskforce

Energetics of Multiple-Ion Species Hohlraum Plasmas

A study of the laser-plasma interaction processes in multiple-ion species plasmas has been performed in plasmas that are created to emulate the plasma conditions in indirect drive inertial confinement fusion targets. Gas-filled hohlraums with densities of xe22/cc are heated to Te=3keV and backscattered laser light is measured by a suite of absolutely calibrated backscatter diagnostics. Ion Landau damping is increased by adding hydrogen to the CO2/CF4 gas fill. We find that the backscatter from stimulated Brillouin scattering is reduced is monotonically reduced with increasing damping, demonstrating that Landau damping is the controlling damping mechanism in ICF relevant high-electron temperature plasmas. The reduction in backscatter is accompanied by a comparable increase in both transmission of a probe beam and an increased hohlraum radiation temperature, showing that multiple-ion species plasmas improve the overall hohlraum energetics/performance. Comparison of the experimental data to linear gain calculations as well as detailed full-scale 3D laser-plasma interaction simulations show quantitative agreement. Our findings confirm the importance of Landau damping in controlling backscatter from high-electron temperature hohlraum plasmas and have lead to the inclusion of multi-ion species plasmas in the hohlraum point design for upcoming ignition campaigns at the National Ignition Facility

Kinematics of the Local Group gas and galaxies in the hestia simulations

We investigate the kinematic properties of gas and galaxies in the Local Group (LG) using high-resolution simulations performed by the hestia (High-resolution Environmental Simulations of The Immediate Area) collaboration. Our simulations include the correct cosmography surrounding LG-like regions consisting of two main spiral galaxies of ∼1012 M⊙, their satellites and minor isolated galaxies, all sharing the same large-scale motion within a volume of a few Mpc. We characterize the gas and galaxy kinematics within the simulated LGs, from the perspective of the Sun, to compare with observed trends from recent HST/COS absorption-line observations and LG galaxy data. To analyse the velocity pattern of LG gas and galaxies seen in the observational data, we build sky maps from the local standard of rest, and the Galactic and LG barycentre frames. Our findings show that the establishment of a radial velocity dipole at low/high latitudes, near the preferred barycentre direction, is a natural outcome of simulation kinematics for material outside the Milky Way virial radius after removing Galaxy rotation when the two main LG galaxies are approaching. Our results favour a scenario where gas and galaxies stream towards the LG barycentre producing a velocity dipole resembling observations. While our study shows in a qualitative way the global matter kinematics in the LG as part of its ongoing assembly, quantitative estimates of gas-flow rates and physical conditions of the LG gas have to await a more detailed modelling of the ionization conditions, which will be presented in a follow-up paper

Long Duration Backlighter Experiments at Omega

We have successfully demonstrated a 7.5 ns-duration pinhole-apertured backlighter at the Omega laser facility. Pinhole-apertured point-projection backlighting for 8 ns will be useful for imaging evolving features in experiments at the National Ignition Facility. The backlighter consisted of a 20 {micro}m diameter pinhole in a 75 {micro}m thick Ta substrate separated from a Zn emitter (9 keV) by a 400 {micro}m thick high-density carbon piece. The carbon prevented the shock from the laser-driven surface from reaching the substrate before 8 ns and helped minimize x-ray ablation of the pinhole substrate. Grid wires in x-ray framing camera images of a gold grid have a source-limited resolution significantly smaller than the pinhole diameter due to the high aspect ratio of the pinhole, but do not become much smaller at late times