Portable Reading Assistant Headset for the Visually Impaired (PRAHVI)

Most products in the domain of assisting people with visual disabilities interpret text focus on the direct translation or dictation of text that is in front of a user. The focus is seldom on any type of textual understanding that goes beyond literal translation. In this project, we have developed the implementation of a novel wearable system that allows the visually impaired to have a better understanding of the textual world around them. Using the equivalent of a typical smartphone camera, a device captures a feed of the user’s surroundings. Pre-processing algorithms for adjusting white-balance and exposure and detecting blurriness are then employed to optimize the capture. The resulting images are sent to the user’s smartphone to be translated into text. Finally, the text is read aloud using an app that the user can control using touch and haptic feedback. The back-end of this system continuously learns from these captures over time to provide more significant and natural feedback based on a user’s semantic queries regarding the text before them. This document includes the requirements, design, use cases, risk tables, workflow and the architecture for the device we developed

The development of the brazilian amazon region and greenhouse gases emission: a dilemma to be faced!

The purpose of this work is to verify the existence of possible tradeoffs between policies direct to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) with the ones direct to foster the development of the Brazilian Amazon Region, which is one of the poorest in the country. In order to achieve this goal, this paper uses an interregional input-output (I-O) model, estimated for the Brazilian economy for the year of 2004. The I-O model is used to make a comparison between the economical and the environmental relevance of each sector in the economies of the Amazon region and the rest of Brazil. This study considers the greenhouse gases emissions not only from the economic activities by itself, but, also for the more important factor of the land-use changes. This is a fact of most importance, given that in 2005, about 60% of the Brazilian GHGs emissions were due to the land-use change in its different biomes. Moreover, in the Brazilian Amazon region, especially in the last decades, the deforestation was linked mainly to economic factors than to policies conducted by the government. The results show that the sectors with the greatest importance in terms of emissions are cattle and soybean production. Also, they are also the most prominent for the region's economic development. This poses a dilemma that needs to be faced not only by Brazil, but also by the developed nations, as the burden of the reduction in the greenhouse gases emission in the Brazilian Amazon region cannot be only put on the poor population of the region!Amazon Region, Greenhouse Gases, Brazil, Input-Output, Economic Development, Productive Structure, Deforestation

Etude de l'aérothermique transitoire d'un impact de jet dans un écoulement transverse confiné

Une modélisation expérimentale du refroidissement par ventilation dédié d'un carter moteur chauffé en face arrière est présentée. La réponse transitoire de l'aérothermique du système fluide-solide à un changement de débit de ventilation est en particulier étudiée. L'expérience consiste en une plaque plane de vitrocéramique dont la face arrière est à température constante, et qui est refroidie en face avant par un jet impactant en écoulement transverse confiné. L'instationnarité est alors réalisée en faisant varier linéairement dans le temps le débit du jet entre deux valeurs extrêmes afin de suivre par thermographie infrarouge et en moyenne de phase l'évolution des variations de température à l'interface fluide/solide

Couplage aérothermique et simulation de refroidissement par jet

Une méthode de couplage aérothermique développée pour des applications instationnaires est implémentée dans CEDRE, la plateforme de calcul de l'ONERA dédiée aux simulations multi-physiques d'écoulement en énergétique. Un premier cas de calcul d'intérêt industriel est présenté : une configuration de refroidissement de matériau par jet dédié, représentative de ventilations pouvant être utilisées notamment dans les cavités nacelles des moteurs d'avion. La comparaison avec l'expérience est tout à fait satifaisante et met en évidence l'importance de la précision des calculs effectués avec les deux solveurs couplés

Strong scaling of general-purpose molecular dynamics simulations on GPUs

We describe a highly optimized implementation of MPI domain decomposition in a GPU-enabled, general-purpose molecular dynamics code, HOOMD-blue (Anderson and Glotzer, arXiv:1308.5587). Our approach is inspired by a traditional CPU-based code, LAMMPS (Plimpton, J. Comp. Phys. 117, 1995), but is implemented within a code that was designed for execution on GPUs from the start (Anderson et al., J. Comp. Phys. 227, 2008). The software supports short-ranged pair force and bond force fields and achieves optimal GPU performance using an autotuning algorithm. We are able to demonstrate equivalent or superior scaling on up to 3,375 GPUs in Lennard-Jones and dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations of up to 108 million particles. GPUDirect RDMA capabilities in recent GPU generations provide better performance in full double precision calculations. For a representative polymer physics application, HOOMD-blue 1.0 provides an effective GPU vs. CPU node speed-up of 12.5x.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figure

Edwardsville Bulletin: December 4, 1995

Quantitative proteomics revealed the nature and cause of the different metabolic features underpinning weak and strong antibiotic producing abilities of two model Streptomyces species. SFEAP 201

A Comparative Sociology of Gypsy Traveller Health in the UK

This paper presents findings from a series of health-related studies undertaken between 2012 and 2017 with Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers living in different locations and in various forms of accommodation in southern England. These set out to develop a sociological understanding of the factors impacting on the health and wellbeing of members of those communities and to consider the extent health status is shaped by ethno-cultural and/or socioeconomic factors, and the interplay and direction of causal processes between them. The relative influences of cultural and structural factors in generating health inequalities have important implications for engaging marginalised populations in health services and preventative programmes. This paper will present survey and qualitative data on Gypsies’ and Travellers’ health beliefs and practices to understand how those beliefs and practices have developed in different social contexts as responses to deeper social mechanisms, and share commonalities with other marginalised and excluded social groups. In policy terms this indicates the need for health interventions that are applied proportionate to the level of disadvantage experienced thus ensuring equality and fairness while accounting for diversity and difference

Contribution of re-regulation reservoirs considering pumping capability to environmentally friendly hydropower operation

Environmental constraints imposed on hydropoweroperation are usually given in the form of minimum environmental flows and maximum and minimum rates of change of flows, or ramp rates. One solution proposed to mitigate the environmental impact caused by the flows discharged by a hydropower plant while reducing the economic impact of the above-mentioned constraints consists in building a re-regulationreservoir, or afterbay, downstream of the power plant. Adding pumpingcapability between the re-regulationreservoir and the main one could contribute both to reducing the size of the re-regulationreservoir, with the consequent environmental improvement, and to improving the economic feasibility of the project, always fulfilling the environmental constraints imposed to hydropoweroperation. The objective of this paper is studying the contribution of a re-regulationreservoir to fulfilling the environmental constraints while reducing the economic impact of said constraints. For that purpose, a revenue-driven optimization model based on mixed integer linear programming is used. Additionally, the advantages of adding pumpingcapability are analysed. In order to illustrate the applicability of the methodology, a case study based on a real hydropower plant is presente

Determination of the efficacy of ultrasound combined with essential oils on the decontamination of Salmonella inoculated lettuce leaves

Salmonella is one of main pathogenic bacteria present in fresh produce. Ultrasound has been reported to be effective at inactivating food-borne pathogens. Moreover, ultrasound can be combined with essential oils to enhance its efficacy. This study evaluates the reduction and inactivation of Salmonella enterica Abony inoculated on lettuce leaves by the application of continuous and pulsed ultrasound as well as ultrasound combined with the essential oil of oregano and thyme. The physicochemical properties of these essential oil nanoemulsions are characterised while the structural damage of treated leaves is determined by the electrolyte leakage. Ultrasound combined with essential oils enhanced the microbial reduction on lettuce leaves and inactivation on the treated water, resulting on significant differences at concentrations higher than 0.018% (v/v) compared to control. Particle size, zeta potential and pH varied between 35 and 133 nm, −26 to −36 mV and 5.67 to 5.38, respectively. Electrolyte leakage was similar for both the control and the treated samples, increasing when essential oils were applied.peer-reviewe