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Geometric Approaches to Control in the Presence of Magnitude and Rate Saturations *
No full textAbstract This paper gives a survey of some recent results on control of systems with magnitude and rate limits, motivated by problems in real-time trajectory generation and tracking for unmanned aerial vehicles. Two problems are considered: stabilization using "nonlinear wrappers" to rescale a given control law and real-time trajectory generation using differential flatness. For both problems, simplified versions of the general problem are studied using tools from differential geometry and nonlinear control to give insights into the limitations imposed by magnitude and rate limits and provide insights into constructive solutions to the trajectory generation and tracking problems
Calculating failure: the making of a calculative infrastructure for forgiving and forecasting failure Article (Published version) (Refereed)
No full text"Othering" the health worker: self-stigmatization of HIV/AIDS care among health workers in Swaziland
No full text"Othering" the health worker: self-stigmatization of HIV/AIDS care among health workers in Swaziland de Vries, D.H.; Galvin, S.; Mhlanga, M.; Cindzi, B.; Dlamini, T. Published in: Journal of the International AIDS Society DOI: 10. 1186/1758-2652-14-60 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): de Vries, D. H., Galvin, S., Mhlanga, M., Cindzi, B., & Dlamini, T. (2011). "Othering" the health worker: selfstigmatization of HIV/AIDS care among health workers in Swaziland. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 14, [60]. https://doi.org/10.1186/1758-2652-14-60 General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Background: HIV is an important factor affecting healthcare workforce capacity in high-prevalence countries, such as Swaziland. It contributes to loss of valuable healthcare providers directly through death and absenteeism and indirectly by affecting family members, increasing work volume and decreasing performance. This study explored perceived barriers to accessing HIV/AIDS care and prevention services among health workers in Swaziland. We asked health workers about their views on how HIV affects Swaziland's health workforce and what barriers and strategies health workers have for addressing HIV and using healthcare treatment facilities. Methods: Thirty-four semi-structured, in-depth interviews, including a limited set of quantitative questions, were conducted among health workers at health facilities representing the mixture of facility type, level and location found in the Swaziland health system. Data were collected by a team of Swazi nurses who had received training in research methods. Study sites were selected using a purposive sampling method while health workers were sampled conveniently with attention to representing a mixture of different cadres. Data were analyzed using Nvivo qualitative analysis software and Excel. Results: Health workers reported that HIV had a range of negative impacts on their colleagues and identified HIV testing and care as one of the most important services to offer health workers. They overwhelmingly wanted to know their own HIV status. However, they also indicated that in general, health workers were reluctant to access testing or care as they feared stigmatization by patients and colleagues and breaches of confidentiality. They described a self-stigmatization related to a professional need to maintain a HIV-free status, contrasting with the HIV-vulnerable general population. Breaching of this boundary included feelings of professional embarrassment and fear of colleagues' and patients' judgements. Conclusions: While care is available and relatively accessible, Swaziland health workers still face unique usage barriers that relate to a self-stigmatizing process of boundary maintenance -described here as a form of "othering" from the HIV-vulnerable general population -and a lack of trust in privacy and confidentiality. Interventions that target health workers should address these issues
Numerical solution of constrained systems using jet spaces
No full textABSTRACT The and its coordinates are denoted by (t, y 1 , . . . , y n ) = (t, y). J q (E ) The q'th order jet space of E . Its coordinates are denoted by (t, y 1 , . . . , y n , y 1 1 , . . . , y n q ) where y i corresponds to the 'th derivative of y i . Note that dim J q (E ) = n(q + 1) + 1. * Address all correspondence to this author. SO(n) The space of n × n orthogonal matrices with determinant one. INTRODUCTION For a long time there has been a lot of interest in the simulation of multibody systems and other constrained ordinary differential equations (or DAEs). The standard view about DAEs is given for example in [1] and in [2] many different ways to formulate multibody dynamics is described. However, in spite of the extensive literature on the subject this problem remains a challenging one and it appears that no definitive solution has been found. The major difficulty is how to respect the constraints in long simulations and at the same time to avoid spurious oscillations which occur quite often in various stabilization methods. We describe results obtained by our method In case of multibody systems we use Lagrangian formalism to derive the equations of motion; this is more natural in jet space context than Hamiltonian formalism. Constraints and possible invariants (like conservation of energy) are taken into account by restricting the dynamics to an appropriate submanifold of a jet space. We will consider only holonomic constraints in thi
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No full textElektroniczne usługi informacyjne typu pytanie-odpowiedź -światowe trendy i doświadczenia bibliotek Wprowadzenie Samuel Green określił w XIX w. cztery podstawowe elementy działalności informacyjnej bibliotek: • instruowanie użytkowników odnośnie korzystania ze zbiorów; • pomoc w doborze źródeł; • udzielanie odpowiedzi na pytania; • promocja biblioteki w środowisku Koncepcja ta generalnie pozostaje aktualna, jedynie sposoby i metody dostarczania usług istotnie się zmieniły. Elektroniczną postać przybrały duże części zbiorów i warsztatów informacyjnych, przede wszystkim katalogi biblioteczne. Bardziej wymagający stali się użytkownicy, którzy -często z odległych miejsc -oczekują wszystkiego on-line. Z chwilą pojawienia się sieci komputerowych łatwiejsze stało się informowanie o bibliotece i jej zasobach drogą elektroniczną, nie tylko w postaci tekstowych informacji na witrynie WWW, ale również multimedialnych samouczków. Pomocą w wyszukiwaniu źródeł spoza macierzystej biblioteki są wykazy interesujących linków, często w postaci usystematyzowanych katalogów tematycznych czy podręcznych "informatoriów", np. Digital Librarian: Reference http://www.digital-librarian.com/reference.html. Użytkownicy mają możliwość zadawania pytań bibliotekarzowi w trybie on-line i uzyskiwania niemal natychmiastowej pomocy w poszukiwaniu źródeł. Elektroniczne usługi informacyjne, które najczęściej kojarzą się z logo "Ask a Librarian" na witrynie bibliotecznej, stały się powszechnym uzupełnieniem usług tradycyjnych. Do najprostszychasynchronicznych -należą usługi realizowane za pomocą poczty elektronicznej, cechujące się brakiem bezpośredniej komunikacji z bibliotekarzem i wydłużonym czasem otrzymania odpowiedzi. Bardziej zaawansowaną formą są usługi synchroniczne, realizowane w czasie rzeczywistym (np. czat), kiedy następuje natychmiastowa interakcja między użytkownikiem a bibliotekarzem Koncepcja elektronicznych usług informacyjnych stała się w ciągu ostatnich kilkudziesięciu lat bardzo popularna na świecie i stanowi istotny obszar działań praktycznych i badań w bibliotekoznawstwie i informacji naukowej. Tematyka dostarczania usług on-line, współpracy bibliotek i tworzenia standardów jest przedmiotem ogromnej liczby publikacji. Najobszerniejsza bibliografia na ten temat w sieci, aktualizowana na bieżąco przez B. Sloana, liczy obecnie 700 pozycji, w tym ok. 40% dostępnych w Internecie Niniejszy artykuł jest próbą podsumowania dotychczasowego dorobku bibliotekarstwa światowego w zakresie rozwoju elektronicznych usług informacyjnych typu pytanie-odpowiedź. Materiał opracowano na podstawie literatury zagranicznej, obserwacji witryn internetowych bibliotek oraz lektury wypowiedzi na listach dyskusyjnych pracowników informacji. Zaprezentowano formy udzielania informacji drogą elektroniczną za pomocą różnych narzędzi, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem programów typu Web contact center, stosowanych w bibliotekach i konsorcjach. Przedstawiono zasady wdrażania usług elektronicznych, standardy IFLA i ALA. Dodatkowe informacje oraz wykazy bibliotek realizujących eusługi znaleźć można w wykazie linków "Elektroniczne usługi informacyjne -przydatne materiały w sieci" opracowanym przez autorkę artykułu
The Braybrooke Press Ltd
No full textEven though project management tools and techniques (PMTT) have been commonly used by project managers, research on PMTT still has not been adequately investigated as to whether its use contributes to the success of a project. The lack of such knowledge leads to the use of PMTT because of popularity rather than any known benefits. To respond to this issue, the authors conducted a large-sample study based on a survey and statistical analyses to investigate the use of PMTT. Evidence emerged that some PMTT should be used in a certain phase of a project and such uses contribute to project success
2007 ), ‘ Rethinking of Risk Communication: Lessons from the Decision
No full textAbstract Risk communication involves three primary elements: process, content and intent. Much has been written about the first two. Much is known, for example, about the guiding principles that should be considered during the design of a risk communication. Likewise, many studies have been conducted about how best to establish the technical and informational content of a risk communication. Very little attention, by contrast, has been devoted to the intent of risk communication, which is to inform decision making for risk management. While appropriate information upon which to base risk management decisions is important, so to is an understanding of how people instinctively approach decision making under conditions of risk. Work in the decision sciences provides this oftenmissing perspective for many risk communication efforts and is, therefore, the focus of this paper
The Information Society: An International Journal Pink and Blue Pixel: Gender and Economic Disparity in Two Massive Online Games
No full textInformation and communication technologies are blurring the boundaries between work and play. We present the first empirical investigation of gender gaps in virtual game economies. Analyzing big data sets from two major game economies, we find that player gender and character gender influence virtual wealth in different ways in different games. We conclude that this can be explained by different returns on female-and male-dominated play activities, that is, virtual pink-and blue-collar occupations. As the line between work and play increasingly blurs, researchers should track which occupations get to keep their conventional economic rewards, and which end up being remunerated in play money
AN EXPERIENCE WITH ASME PTC-70 RAMP RATES
No full textABSTRACT ASME PTC-70 is a new performance test code for determination of ramp rates. Ramp rates are often required by dispatch agencies and independent system operators (ISOs). They are used to ensure the reliability of the electric power grid to ensure enough available power is achievable in the time frame required -for instance, if any generating unit suddenly comes offline, the remaining units online at that time will need to pick up the required load. A mix of both spinning reserve and non-spinning reserve may be needed. The published ramp rates declared by the generating units along with available reserve power are used by system operators to balance the potential for lost generation due to scheduled, expected and emergency events. An ASME committee was formed late in 2007 to develop PTC 70 after it was determined that there was no standard methodology to determine ramp rates in the US. Just over one year later, PTC 70 was sent to publishing, and is now available for use by industry. Published in 2009, the amount of experience with PTC 70 is limited. One such experience is described here, including setup, testing and results of the ramp rate test at a dual LM6000 simple cycle facility
She, Who Has the Spoon, Has the Power: Immigrant Women'S Use of Food to Negotiate Power Relations
No full textBased on data on Romanian female immigrants to Italy and their food consumption, we argue that consumer and gender role acculturation can both be described as a network of power relations in the women's lived experience and that such power relations are negotiated by means of everyday food consumption choices. We propose a model which describes contextual situations and the power structure they imply in terms of control these women exercise over their bodies and lives, and we demonstrate how their food consumption choices are related to such "regimes of control over the self"