FLEXIBLE TEG ON THE ANKLE FOR MEASURING THE POWER GENERATED WHILE PERFORMING ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING

In this work, a commercial flexible thermoelectric generator (f-TEG) was used to harvest the body thermal energy during the execution of activities of daily living (ADL). The f-TEG was placed at the level of the ankle, and the performed activities were sitting at the desk and walking. In the first stage of measurements, tests were performed to choose the value of the resistor load that maximizes the power output. Then, while performing ADL, the values of generated power were in the range from 100 to 450 µW. Moreover, while users are walking, the pattern of the output signal of f-TEG is compatible to a sine function with frequency close to that one of human gait. This preliminary result may represent a new way to study the movement of human body to recognize AD

Quel avenir pour les politiques de développement régional au Québec ? (Version mise à jour le 9 août 2004)

This document presents a detailed analysis of the regional development issue in Quebec. First, it includes an analysis of the available regional economic data, which confirms the relative decline of "peripheral" regions versus "central" regions. A critical survey of regional policies enforced during the XXth century and of regional development theories that inspired them is then presented. The authors also survey contemporary regional policies and institutions in Quebec and provide an overview of the situation elsewhere in Canada and of some international experiences. Towards suggesting policy prescriptions, the authors introduce regional policy issues that are relevant at the beginning of the XXIst century and the multiple lessons that can be drawn from the economic literature. They discuss the "regional-international" paradigm and the two major approaches to regional development - "place prosperity" and "people prosperity". The authors conclude by proposing a regional policy that covers all Quebec regions, differentiating between "peripheral" regions, the metropolitan region of Montreal and the "adjacent-metropolitan" region of Montreal. (Revised version on August 9th 2004 with a new Figure 14) Ce document présente une analyse détaillée de la problématique du développement régional au Québec. Il comprend d'abord une analyse des données économiques régionales disponibles, qui confirme le déclin relatif des régions « périphériques » par rapport aux régions « centrales ». Une recension critique des politiques régionales appliquées au cours du XXe siècle et des théories du développement régional qui les ont inspirées est ensuite présentée. Les auteurs brossent également le tableau des politiques et institutions régionales contemporaines au Québec et offrent un survol de la situation ailleurs au Canada et de quelques expériences internationales. Avec pour objectif d'effectuer des recommandations aux gouvernements, les auteurs présentent les enjeux des politiques régionales au début du XXIe siècle ainsi que les multiples enseignements de la littérature économique dans ce domaine. Le paradigme « régional-international » et l'opposition entre les deux grandes approches de développement régional - la « prospérité des lieux » et la « prospérité des individus » - sont discutés. Les auteurs suggèrent enfin une politique régionale concernant l'ensemble du territoire québécois et différenciée entre les régions « périphériques », la région métropolitaine de Montréal et la région « métropolitaine-adjacente » de Montréal. (Version mise à jour le 9 août 2004 afin de corriger une erreur de manipulation de données à la figure 14 et dans le texte s’y rapportant)regional development, regional policy, peripheral regions, regional disparities, urbanisation, développement régional, politiques régionales, régions périphériques, disparités régionales, urbanisation

EFFECT OF THE PLACEMENT OF THE INERTIAL SENSOR ON THE HUMAN MOTION DETECTION

There are numerous possibilities of assessments of the human activity, offered by the ActimedARM -a wearable inertial sensor we developed. This device features a triaxial magnetometer, a trixial accelerometer, a micro-processing unit, a Zigbee module and a μSD card. Its embedded algorithms make it able to compute postures, transfers of the subject and also to characterize the walking episodes. We recently succeeded in computing the relative displacements of the sensors, from double integration of the acceleration signals, in order to qualify specific physical activities such as rising from chairs or stools. The experiments highlighted the impact of the location of the sensor on the body on the correlation between objective motion and signals processed from acceleration measurements, showing a better correlation coefficient of 11.41% when the sensor is located on the navel

University's as business partner? Die Sicht von Unternehmen auf junge Akademiker/innen als Nachwuchskräfte und auf Hochschulen als Drehscheibe für Recruitingprozesse - eine Studie stellt sich vor

Vor dem Hintergrund der in den letzten Jahren erfolgten Umstellung des Studienbetriebes auf die Bologna-Architektur, stehen einerseits die Universitäten vor der Herausforderung, vor allem den Wert des Bachelor-Studiums als Ausbildung für den Berufseinstieg zu überprüfen. Andererseits suchen allein aus dem Eigeninteresse der Unternehmen heraus deren Personalvertreter hoch qualifizierte Nachwuchskräfte. In der wissenschaftlichen Literatur werden die Merkmale von Recruiting-Prozessen vermehrt mit der Begrifflichkeit "war of talents" umschrieben. Dieser Begriff verweist auf das große Spektrum der Drehscheiben, mit deren Hilfe die Unternehmen geeignetes Personal finden: dazu zählt zunehmend das Social Web genauso wie Universitäten mit speziellen Angeboten wie die der Career-Services, denn die Unternehmen orientieren sich bei dem Erstfindungsprozess dort, "wo die Absolventen sind". So wird die Personalbeschaffung und -sicherung auch vor dem Hintergrund demografischer Entwicklungen im europäischen Raum eine zentrale Herausforderung darstellen. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt eine Studie an der Universität Salzburg vor, die im Rahmen des Projekts "Grenzüberschreitende Career Services" danach fragt, wie sich Einstiegsszenarien von Akademikern in Unternehmen ausgestalten und welche Rolle die Hochschulen von der Ausbildung bis zur Vermittlung ihrer Absolventen spielen. (ICI2

A tool for sustainability impact assessment (ToSIA)of forest-wood chains linked with a database of sustainability indicators collected within the EFORWOOD project

Within the EFORWOOD project new approaches to assess the sustainability impacts of forest-wood chains (FWC) using indicators of environmental, social and economic sustainability were developed

Prediction model of alcohol intoxication from facial temperature dynamics based on K-means clustering driven by evolutionary computing

Alcohol intoxication is a significant phenomenon, affecting many social areas, including work procedures or car driving. Alcohol causes certain side effects including changing the facial thermal distribution, which may enable the contactless identification and classification of alcohol-intoxicated people. We adopted a multiregional segmentation procedure to identify and classify symmetrical facial features, which reliably reflects the facial-temperature variations while subjects are drinking alcohol. Such a model can objectively track alcohol intoxication in the form of a facial temperature map. In our paper, we propose the segmentation model based on the clustering algorithm, which is driven by the modified version of the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) evolutionary optimization with the goal of facial temperature features extraction from the IR (infrared radiation) images. This model allows for a definition of symmetric clusters, identifying facial temperature structures corresponding with intoxication. The ABC algorithm serves as an optimization process for an optimal cluster's distribution to the clustering method the best approximate individual areas linked with gradual alcohol intoxication. In our analysis, we analyzed a set of twenty volunteers, who had IR images taken to reflect the process of alcohol intoxication. The proposed method was represented by multiregional segmentation, allowing for classification of the individual spatial temperature areas into segmentation classes. The proposed method, besides single IR image modelling, allows for dynamical tracking of the alcohol-temperature features within a process of intoxication, from the sober state up to the maximum observed intoxication level.Web of Science118art. no. 99

Optimized annealing of traveling salesman problem from the nth-nearest-neighbor distribution

We report a new statistical general property in traveling salesman problem, that the $n$th-nearest-neighbor distribution of optimal tours verifies with very high accuracy an exponential decay as a function of the order of neighbor $n$. With defining the energy function as the deviation $\lambda$ from this exponential decay, which is different to the tour length $d$ in normal annealing processes, we propose a distinct highly optimized annealing scheme which is performed in $\lambda$-space and $d$-space by turns. The simulation results of some standard traveling salesman problems in TSPLIB95 are presented. It is shown that our annealing recipe is superior to the canonical simulated annealing.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, preprin

A smart sewer asset information model to enable an ‘Internet of Things’ for operational wastewater management

Real-time prediction of flooding is vital for the successful future operational management of the UK sewerage network. Recent advances in smart infrastructure and the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), presents an opportunity within the wastewater sector to harness and report in real-time sewer condition data for operation management. This study presents the design and development of a prototype Smart Sewer Asset Information Model (SSAIM) for an existing sewerage network. The SSAIM, developed using Industry Foundation Class version 4 (IFC4) an open neutral data format for BIM, incorporates distributed smart sensors to enable real-time monitoring and reporting of sewer asset performance. Results describe an approach for sensor data analysis to facilitate the real-time prediction of flooding

A MATLAB-BASED GUI FOR REMOTE ELECTROOCULOGRAPHY VISUAL EXAMINATION

In this work, a MATLAB-based graphical user interface is proposed for the visual examination of several eye movements. The proposed solution is algorithm-based, which localizes the area of the eye movement, removes artifacts, and calculates the view trajectory in terms of direction and orb deviation. To compute the algorithm, a five-electrode configuration is needed. The goodness of the proposed MATLAB-based graphical user interface has been validated, at the Clinic of Child Neurology of University Hospital of Ostrava, through the EEG Wave Program, which was considered as “gold standard” test. The proposed solution can help physicians on studying cerebral diseases, or to be used for the development of human-machine interfaces useful for the improvement of the digital era that surrounds us today

Migratory patterns and evolutionary plasticity of cranial neural crest cells in ray-finned fishes

The cranial neural crest (CNC) arises within the developing central nervous system, but then migrates away from the neural tube in three consecutive streams termed mandibular, hyoid and branchial, respectively, according to the order along the anteroposterior axis. While the process of neural crest emigration generally follows a conserved anterior to posterior sequence across vertebrates, we find that ray-finned fishes (bichir, sterlet, gar, and pike) exhibit several heterochronies in the timing and order of CNC emergence that influences their subsequent migratory patterns. First, emigration of the cranial neural crest in these fishes occurs prematurely compared to other vertebrates, already initiating during early neurulation and well before neural tube closure. Second, delamination of the hyoid stream occurs prior to the more anterior mandibular stream; this is associated with early morphogenesis of key hyoid structures like external gills (bichir), a large opercular flap (gar) or first forming cartilage (pike). In sterlet, the hyoid and branchial CNC cells form a single hyobranchial sheet, which later segregates in concert with second pharyngeal pouch morphogenesis. Taken together, the results show that despite generally conserved migratory patterns, heterochronic alterations in the timing of emigration and pattern of migration of CNC cells accompanies morphological diversity of ray-finned fishes