70 research outputs found
A Discussion of Thin Client Technology for Computer Labs
Computer literacy is not negotiable for any professional in an increasingly
computerised environment. Educational institutions should be equipped to
provide this new basic training for modern life. Accordingly, computer labs are
an essential medium for education in almost any field. Computer labs are one of
the most popular IT infrastructures for technical training in primary and
secondary schools, universities and other educational institutions all over the
world. Unfortunately, a computer lab is expensive, in terms of both initial
purchase and annual maintenance costs, and especially when we want to run the
latest software. Hence, research efforts addressing computer lab efficiency,
performance or cost reduction would have a worldwide repercussion. In response
to this concern, this paper presents a survey on thin client technology for
computer labs in educational environments. Besides setting out the advantages
and drawbacks of this technology, we aim to refute false prejudices against
thin clients, identifying a set of educational scenarios where thin clients are
a better choice and others requiring traditional solutions
Blood pressure and sodium: association with MRI markers in cerebral small vessel disease
Dietary salt intake and hypertension are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease including stroke. We aimed to explore the influence of these factors, together with plasma sodium concentration, in cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). In all, 264 patients with nondisabling cortical or lacunar stroke were recruited. Patients were questioned about their salt intake and plasma sodium concentration was measured; brain tissue volume and white-matter hyperintensity (WMH) load were measured using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) while diffusion tensor MRI and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI were acquired to assess underlying tissue integrity. An index of added salt intake (P = 0.021), pulse pressure (P = 0.036), and diagnosis of hypertension (P = 0.0093) were positively associated with increased WMH, while plasma sodium concentration was associated with brain volume (P = 0.019) but not with WMH volume. These results are consistent with previous findings that raised blood pressure is associated with WMH burden and raise the possibility of an independent role for dietary salt in the development of cerebral SVD
On the incorporation of interval-valued fuzzy sets into the Bousi-Prolog system: declarative semantics, implementation and applications
In this paper we analyse the benefits of incorporating interval-valued fuzzy
sets into the Bousi-Prolog system. A syntax, declarative semantics and im-
plementation for this extension is presented and formalised. We show, by using
potential applications, that fuzzy logic programming frameworks enhanced with
them can correctly work together with lexical resources and ontologies in order
to improve their capabilities for knowledge representation and reasoning
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