Distributed Air Traffic Control Simulator

During initial training air traffic control students acquire theoretical knowledge in various fields including air traffic management, aircraft performance, air traffic control equipment and systems, navigation and others. This paper proposes a simulator and explains its use and features that allows students to gain a practical insight into their coursework in order to complement their training. The goal of the simulator is to realistically implement all the key functionalities needed to cover the topics that were presented in class. The simulator offers a user friendly, distributed, and multi-role environment that can be deployed on regular PCs. Moreover, this paper discusses and resolves some of the main conceptual and implementational issues that were faced during simulator development

Identity Provider Deployment Based on Container Technology

Identity Providers are an integral part of Identity Federations. Many different and complex technologies are needed to create an Identity Provider. In order to be able to fully utilize all the benefits of Identity Federations, adequate hardware resources are needed for Identity Provider deployment. Containers address the complexity and resources issues, while enabling faster deployment and keeping the functionalities and core concepts intact at the same time. Containers cannot be perceived as a replacement for virtual machines or bare metal servers, as they are meant to co-exist and have already found a wide range of use cases. This paper proposes using containers for easier implementation of Identity Providers, while lowering resource usage and complexity imposed by deployment requirements

Experimental design of the Cu-As-Sn ternary colour diagram

The aesthetic appearance of metals has long been recognised in archaeometric studies as an important factor driving inventions and innovations in the evolution of metal production. Nevertheless, while studies of ancient gold metallurgy are well supported by modern research in colour characteristics of gold alloys, the colour properties of major prehistoric copper alloys, such as arsenical copper and tin bronzes, remain either largely understudied or not easily accessible to the western scholarship. A few published studies have already indicated that alloying and heat treatment change the colours of copper alloys, although they are mainly based on examples of prehistoric tin bronze objects and experimental casts. Here we present a procedure for building the Cu-As-Sn ternary colour diagram, starting with experimental casting of 64 binary and ternary alloys in this system. We used two types of information to produce two different ternary colour diagrams: one based on photographs of the samples, and the other based on the colorimetric measurements. Furthermore, we developed a procedure for creating a graphic representation of colours in the Cu-As-Sn ternary diagram using QGIS. As an initial case study, we plotted the composition of the world's earliest tin bronze artefacts; the graphic representation further supports claims about the importance of a golden hue for their invention and demand, c. 6500 years ago. We argue that the presented colour diagrams will find wide use in future investigations of aesthetics of prehistoric copper alloys

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Correlation between the morphology of unheated staircase and energy performance of residential buildings

As a side effect of the need for greater energy efficiency of buildings, there is a problem of decrease of the available interior space affected by the reduction in U-value of parts of thermal building envelope, i.e. an increase in thickness of insulating layer, which is especially present in unheated staircase. Having in mind that present methods of calculation of transmission heat losses through elements of thermal envelope include the adjustment factor which regulates designed temperature conditions if the temperature at the colder side of the element of the thermal envelope differs from that of the external environment, this paper strives to demonstrate that in the case of unheated staircases, this fixed value should be reconsidered and treated as a variable depending on the morphology, i.e. form, size and position of the staircase within the building. This problem has been analyzed on the example of Serbian housing stock and relevant national thermal regulations. Three morphological types of unheated staircases have been distinguished within which three models have been defined and examined with respect to variations in number of floors and percentage of glazing. Average temperatures of staircase volume and temperature correction factors were calculated in following temperature modes: stationary that excluded solar gains and ventilation heat losses and gains, and dynamic with variations in air exchange rates and insolation conditions, expressing in all of the cases variations in calculated values of temperature correction factors in comparison to the prescribed fixed value

Tetraoxanes as inhibitors of apicomplexan parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii growth and anti-cancer molecules

New cyclohexylidene 1,2,4,5-tetraoxanes with polar guanidine and urea based groups were synthesized and evaluated for their antimalarial activity against chloroquine resistant and susceptible Plasmodium falciparum strains. The derivatives showed moderate, nM range antimalarial activities and low cytotoxicity. The N-phenylurea derivative 24 exhibited the best resistance indices (RIW2 = 0.44, RITM91C235 = 0.80) and was not toxic against human normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (IC50 gt 200 mu M). Seven derivatives were tested in vitro against four human cancer cell lines and they demonstrated high selectivity toward leukaemia K562 cells. One compound, derivative 21 with a primary amino group, was the first tetraoxane tested in vivo against Toxoplasma gondii as another apicomplexan parasite. Subcutaneous administration at a dose of 10 mg kg(-1) day(-1) for 8 days allowed the survival of 20 % of infected mice, thus demonstrating the high potential of tetraoxanes for the treatment of apicomplexan parasites