Energy-based Adaptive Compression in Water Network Control Systems

© 2016 IEEE.Contemporary water distribution networks exploit Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to monitor and control the behavior of water network assets. Smart meters/sensor and actuator nodes have been used to transfer information from the water network to data centers for further analysis. Due to the underground position of water assets, many water companies tend to deploy battery driven nodes which last beyond the 10-year mark. This prohibits the use of high-sample rate sensing therefore limiting the knowledge we can obtain from the recorder data. To alleviate this problem, efficient data compression enables high-rate sampling, whilst reducing significantly the required storage and bandwidth resources without sacrificing the meaningful information content. This paper introduces a novel algorithm which combines the accuracy of standard lossless compression with the efficiency of a compressive sensing framework. Our method balances the tradeoffs of each technique and optimally selects the best compression mode by minimizing reconstruction errors, given the sensor node battery state. To evaluate our algorithm, real high-sample rate water pressure data of over 170 days and 25 sensor nodes of our real world large scale testbed was used. The experimental results reveal that our algorithm can reduce communication around 66% and extend battery life by 46% compared to traditional periodic communication techniques

Detection of Endophyte Mycotoxins by Service Laboratories: Providing Answers for Safe Feed

. A global network of service laboratories exists to test livestock feed materials (typically grass hay and pellets) for ergovaline, ergot alkaloids and lolitrem B to ensure ‘safe feeds’ are being given to livestock. These compounds are mycotoxins produced by endophytic fungi that naturally reside in feed material. They have been purposely bred into grass species, as they enhance the plant’s survival from drought and insect predation. Unfortunately, ergovaline and other ergot alkaloids also cause vasoconstrictive effects and reproductive difficulties in livestock, resulting in a $1 million annual loss in production for the cattle industry in the USA alone. Lolitrem B is a neurotoxicant that causes a syndrome known as ‘ryegrass staggers,’ which involves a tremoring response in the animal. Clients of these service laboratories include hay farmers who want to be confident that the product they are selling is safe to feed to livestock; veterinarians who are trying to rule out causes of disease in clinical cases; individuals wanting to check personal feed sources; and researchers investigating innovative solutions to these feed contaminants. Each year, approximately 33,000 containers of hay are shipped overseas from the USA, including Pacific Rim and Middle Eastern countries, bringing in an estimated$130 million annually. If the importing country requires it, the material in these containers must be tested for the appropriate mycotoxin(s) and have a certificate stating that the level found was below the established threshold of toxicity. Discussion of sample submission, analysis and result receipt will be compared amongst international laboratories known to perform analyses for these mycotoxins

Frequency dispersion reduction and bond conversion on n-type GaAs by in situ surface oxide removal and passivation

The method of surface preparation on n-type GaAs, even with the presence of an amorphous-Si interfacial passivation layer, is shown to be a critical step in the removal of accumulation capacitance frequency dispersion. In situ deposition and analysis techniques were used to study different surface preparations, including NH4OH, Si-flux, and atomic hydrogen exposures, as well as Si passivation depositions prior to in situ atomic layer deposition of Al2O3. As–O bonding was removed and a bond conversion process with Si deposition is observed. The accumulation capacitance frequency dispersion was removed only when a Si interlayer and a specific surface clean were combined

GaAs interfacial self-cleaning by atomic layer deposition

The reduction and removal of surface oxides from GaAs substrates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Al2O3 and HfO2 are studied using in situ monochromatic x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Using the combination of in situ deposition and analysis techniques, the interfacial "self-cleaning" is shown to be oxidation state dependent as well as metal organic precursor dependent. Thermodynamics, charge balance, and oxygen coordination drive the removal of certain species of surface oxides while allowing others to remain. These factors suggest proper selection of surface treatments and ALD precursors can result in selective interfacial bonding arrangements

In-situ characterization of Ga2O passivation of In0.53Ga0.47As prior to high-k dielectric atomic layer deposition

Ga2O interfacial passivation layers (IPLs) on In0.53Ga0.47As are investigated using in-situ monochromatic x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The oxide is entirely composed of Ga2O when deposited with an effusion cell temperature of 1500 degrees C and substrate temperature of 425 degrees C. The growth on In0.53Ga0.47As reveals slight chemical modification of the surface. The Ga2O behavior and ability to protect the III-V surface are observed following Al2O3 deposition by atomic layer deposition following each precursor pulse. Al2O3 growth by trimethyl-Al (TMA) and water reveals that the IPL undergoes the "clean-up" effect following TMA exposures causing As-As bonding formation resulting in a high interface state density. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. (doi:10.1063/1.3615666

Air Pollution, housing and respiratory tract Infections in Children: NatIonal birth Cohort study (PICNIC) - study protocol

INTRODUCTION: Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are the most common reason for hospital admission among children <5 years in the UK. The relative contribution of ambient air pollution exposure and adverse housing conditions to RTI admissions in young children is unclear and has not been assessed in a UK context. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The aim of the PICNIC study (Air Pollution, housing and respiratory tract Infections in Children: NatIonal birth Cohort Study) is to quantify the extent to which in-utero, infant and childhood exposures to ambient air pollution and adverse housing conditions are associated with risk of RTI admissions in children <5 years old. We will use national administrative data birth cohorts, including data from all children born in England in 2005-2014 and in Scotland in 1997-2020, created via linkage between civil registration, maternity and hospital admission data sets. We will further enhance these cohorts via linkage to census data on housing conditions and socioeconomic position and small area-level data on ambient air pollution and building characteristics. We will use time-to-event analyses to examine the association between air pollution, housing characteristics and the risk of RTI admissions in children, calculate population attributable fractions for ambient air pollution and housing characteristics, and use causal mediation analyses to explore the mechanisms through which housing and air pollution influence the risk of infant RTI admission. ETHICS, EXPECTED IMPACT AND DISSEMINATION: To date, we have obtained approval from six ethics and information governance committees in England and two in Scotland. Our results will inform parents, national and local governments, the National Health Service and voluntary sector organisations of the relative contribution of adverse housing conditions and air pollution to RTI admissions in young children. We will publish our results in open-access journals and present our results to the public via parent groups and social media and on the PICNIC website. Code and metadata will be published on GitHub

2017 EACTS Guidelines on perioperative medication in adult cardiac surgery

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesAstraZeneca Boheringer Ingelheim Abbvie Octapharma Orion Dextera Surgical Medtronic Boston Scientific Abbott Boehringer Ingelheim Pfizer Boeringer-Ingelheim XVIVO Perfusion LFB Corporation CSL Behring Roche Diagnostics Triolab AB Amgen Sanofi MSD Bayer Berlin Chemi

Impact of left ventricular ejection fraction on 10-year mortality in the SYNTAX trial

Backgrounds: The impact of reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) on very long-term prognosis following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) has been debated. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of LVEF at baseline on 10-year mortality in the SYNTAX trial. Methods: Patients (n = 1800) were categorized into three sub-groups: reduced (rEF ≤ 40 %), mildly reduced (mrEF 41–49 %), and preserved LVEF (pEF ≥ 50 %). The SYNTAX score 2020 (SS-2020) was applied in patients with LVEF&lt;50 % and ≥ 50 %. Results: Ten-year mortalities were 44.0 %, 31.8 %, and 22.6 % (P &lt; 0.001) in patients with rEF (n = 168), mrEF (n = 179), and pEF (n = 1453). Although no significant differences were observed, the mortality with PCI was higher than with CABG in patients with rEF (52.9 % vs 39.6 %, P = 0.054) and mrEF (36.0 % vs. 28.6 %, P = 0.273), and comparable in pEF (23.9 % vs. 22.2 %, P = 0.275). Calibration and discrimination of the SS-2020 in patients with LVEF&lt;50 % were poor, whilst they were reasonable in those with LVEF≥50 %. The proportion of patients eligible for PCI who had a predicted equipoise in mortality with CABG was estimated to be 57.5 % in patients with LVEF≥50 %. CABG was safer than PCI in 62.2 % of patients with LVEF&lt;50 %. Conclusions: Reduced LVEF was associated with an increased risk of 10-year mortality in patients revascularized either surgically or percutaneously. Compared to PCI, CABG was safe revascularization in patients with LVEF≤40 %. In patients with LVEF≥50 % individualized 10-year all-cause mortality predicted by SS-2020 was helpful in decision-making whilst the predictivity in patients with LVEF&lt;50 % was poor.</p

Landfall : an exhibition of hand-pulled lithographs printed at Landfall Press, Chicago

This exhibition represents a selection of printers' proofs on which Milan Milojevic worked, as apprentice printer at Landfall