The Development of a smart metering scheme

Paper no. O-036Collaboration is a term to characterize contemporary relationship between a supplier and a consumer. In the old days, an energy meter is the interface service-counter that prompts the double-coincidence of wants between the parties. Nowadays a meter can have smartness beyond registration of consumption units by the supplier. It can carry intelligence to serve demand side management. When the electrical-load-signature technology has been efficiently developed, then a user has to accept that the barrier to load monitoring and surveillance by other parties is no longer a technical issue, but primarily an ethical issue only. On the other hand, it is anticipated that experience curves shall drag down the cost of intelligent home management system to an extent that most of the homes can equip one system to enhance installation operation efficiency and human comfort. It is perceived that when a platform can be developed to permit the intelligence of two sides to share information, then each of them may support the other as a neighboring aide. This paper discusses on philosophies and models that shall develop the concepts.postprintThe International Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE) 2008, Okinawa, Japan, 6-10 July 2008

Editorial: water governance in a climate change world: appraising systemic and adaptive effectiveness

and other research outputs Editorial: water governance in a climate change world: appraising systemic and adaptive effectivenes

Are patients' and doctors' accounts of the first specialist consultation for chronic back pain in agreement?

INTRODUCTION: The first consultation at a specialist pain clinic is potentially a pivotal event in a patient’s pain history, affecting treatment adherence and engagement with longer term self-management. What doctors communicate to patients about their chronic pain and how patients interpret doctors’ messages and explanations in pain consultations are under-investigated, particularly in specialist care. Yet, patients value personalized information about their pain problem. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixteen patients in their first specialist pain clinic consultation and the doctors they consulted were interviewed shortly after the consultation. Framework analysis, using patient themes, was used to identify full match, partial match, or mismatch of patient–doctor dyads’ understandings of the consultation messages. RESULTS: Patients and doctors agreed, mainly implicitly, that medical treatment aiming at pain relief was primary and little time was devoted to discussion of self-management. Clinically relevant areas of mismatch included the explanation of pain, the likelihood of medical treatments providing relief, the long-term treatment plan, and the extent to which patients were expected to be active in achieving treatment goals. DISCUSSION: Overall, there appears to be reasonable concordance between doctors and patients, and patients were generally satisfied with their first consultation with a specialist. Two topics showed substantial mismatch, the estimated likely outcome of the next planned intervention and, assuming (as doctors but not patients did) that this was unsuccessful, the long-term treatment plan. It appeared that more complex issues often generate divergence of understanding or agreement. Despite the widespread recommendations to medical practitioners to check patients’ understanding directly, it does not appear to be routine practice. CONCLUSION: It is hoped that this research encourages more detailed examination of shared and divergent experiences of pain consultations and also their influence on the subsequent course of intervention and adherence to treatment (not addressed here)

Effects of progressive backward body weight supported treadmill training on gait ability in chronic stroke patients: A randomized controlled trial

postprin

Oxygen-Vacancy-Induced Orbital Reconstruction of Ti Ions at the Interface of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures: A Resonant Soft-X-Ray Scattering Study

Resonant soft-x-ray scattering measurements have been performed to investigate interface electronic structures of (LaAlO3/SrTiO3) superlattices. Resonant scattering intensities at superlattice reflections show clear evidence of degeneracy lifting in t(2g) states of interface Ti ions. Polarization dependence of intensities indicates the energy of d(xy) states is lower by similar to 1 eV than two other t(2g) states. The energy splitting is insensitive to epitaxial strain. The orbital reconstruction is induced by oxygen vacancies and confined to the interface within two unit cells, indicating charge compensation at the polar interfaces. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.017401X112723Nsciescopu

Solution structure of the dimerization domain of the eurkaryotic stalk P1/P2 complex reveals the structural organization of the eukaryotic stalk

Poster Presentation: abstract A01The lateral ribosomal stalk is responsible for the kingdom‐specific binding of translation factors and activation of GTP hydrolysis during protein synthesis. The eukaryotic stalk consists of the scaffold P0 protein which binds two copies of P1/P2 hetero‐dimers to form a P0(P1/P2)2 pentameric P‐complex. The structure of the eukaryotic stalk is currently not known. To provide a better understanding on the structural organization of eukaryotic stalk, we have determined the solution structure of the N‐terminal dimerization domain …postprin

Nonlinear Sigma Model for Disordered Media: Replica Trick for Non-Perturbative Results and Interactions

In these lectures, given at the NATO ASI at Windsor (2001), applications of the replicas nonlinear sigma model to disordered systems are reviewed. A particular attention is given to two sets of issues. First, obtaining non-perturbative results in the replica limit is discussed, using as examples (i) an oscillatory behaviour of the two-level correlation function and (ii) long-tail asymptotes of different mesoscopic distributions. Second, a new variant of the sigma model for interacting electrons in disordered normal and superconducting systems is presented, with demonstrating how to reduce it, under certain controlled approximations, to known ``phase-only'' actions, including that of the ``dirty bosons'' model.Comment: 25 pages, Proceedings of the NATO ASI "Field Theory of Strongly Correlated Fermions and Bosons in Low - Dimensional Disordered Systems", Windsor, August, 2001; to be published by Kluwe

Pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema following closed percutaneous pleural biopsy: a case report

Minimally invasive investigations, such as pleural fluid cytological assessment and closed percutaneous pleural biopsy, are often performed first in the investigation of suspected malignant pleural effusions. Malignant pleural effusions can be diagnosed with pleural fluid cytology alone in most cases; however, closed pleural biopsy is performed to increase the diagnostic yield when pleural fluid cytology is negative. This additional yield is at the expense of increased complication rates. We report a 64-year old man with a negative pleural fluid cytology but suspected malignant pleural effusion who underwent a closed pleural biopsy, which was complicated by pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum and severe subcutaneous emphysema. Pulmonary laceration by the pleural biopsy needle is the most likely aetiology of these complications. Our case report highlights an infrequent but significant complication of closed percutaneous pleural biopsy