170,671 research outputs found
Observation and analysis of environmental factors of surface waters: An internet of things educational approach
No full textAquatic environment plays an extremely important role in the existence of life on Earth. However, aquatic ecosystems are directly at risk from increasing pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss, which makes it more than necessary to keep them constantly and thoroughly monitored. In this paper, the implementation of a STEM educational practice using the Internet of Things (IoT) systems, together with properly Design-Based Learning (DBL) activities, is presented to inquiry aquatic environments. In particular, it describes the design and implementation of an automated system that exploits data from installed sensors in lakes and rivers to monitor and record environmental parameters. Through the effort to raise school's community awareness for water quality protection as a result of STEM educational activities, in which knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics is applied, students gain: a) knowledge and understanding of basic physical and chemical parameters of aquatic ecosystems, and b) the ability to correlate, interpret and evaluate changes in the physical and chemical parameters of water
Adaptive cross-layer techniques for cellular systems and WLANs: Simulative results within NEWCom Proj.C
No full textThis work reports some results of a joint activity research pursued within the Project C of NEWCom (European network of excellence in communications). The aim of the activity is to investigate adaptive cross-layer techniques for heterogeneous wireless networks and try to obtain some general rules. In particular the singular or joint adaptation of scheduling and link adaptation algorithms is studied by means of simulation platforms for which proper scenarios and metrics have been defined
Social actors and institutional carriers in small island states: Examining the role of partnerships in influencing organisations
No full textIsland societies are states with distinct inherent characteristics and vulnerabilities. Their features are important constraints in the development and adaption of actions towards environmental disclosure. Since 1992, international bodies and institutions have been emphasising the importance of international cooperation and partnerships for helping island societies overcome their inherent obstacles and engage in environmental matters and consequently environmental disclosure. Although international bodies and institutions have been pointing out the importance of studying island societies for many years, in academic research it remains relatively unexplored. This research adopts neo-institutional theory and Scott’s theoretical framework on institutional carriers to examine the role of partnerships in imposing institutional carriers and influencing organisational behaviour towards environmental disclosure. The study examines island societies that have been cooperating through partnerships with large developed countries. Social actors are analysed at three levels, partnerships being one of them, (a) transnational through the European Union, (b) societal through domestic society and politics, and (c) the organisational field through industrial sectors, in an attempt to examine the role of social actors in shaping the structure of organisations and ascertain their interaction in diffusing institutional carriers for environmental disclosure. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine and interpret semi-structured face-to-face interviews with private and public sector organisations and the governmental environment representative
Modelling framework for evaluation environmental strategy and water management efficency at airports
No full textThe growing concern about climate change and environmental protection
represent significant barriers towards growth in the aviation sector. Currently,
airport operators need to consider not only noise control and local air, soil and
water pollution management, but also to control the consumption of nonrenewable
natural resources and to minimise their impact on climate change.
A detailed analysis of current applied practices pointed out that the main issues
that airports need to manage, have to do principally with control of natural
resources consumption, control of noise and management of emissions, water
quality, waste and ecosystems. Although these issues in most of cases have been
identified, airports’ priorities regarding their management were not easily
acknowledged.
The key findings of this research suggest that in the case of environmental
management strategies, different patterns exist; thus, some airports seem to seek
balance mostly between mitigating global and local environmental issues or
resource consumption control and pollution management, while others obviously
take measures aimed at managing one or the other impact. In the case of water
management efficiency, while many airports seem to have applied measures to
sustain water quality, only a few of them have applied sufficient consumption
control measures
Figure 2 in Revisiting the saproxylic beetle 'Propomacrus cypriacus Alexis & Makris, 2002' (Coleoptera: Euchiridae) using molecular, morphological and ecological data
No full textFigure 2. Paramera of male at left (lateral and dorsal views) and parts of left valves of female Propomacrus at right. The dashed line separates different scales and sexes. (a–d): 'P. cypriacus'; (e–h) P. bimucronatus from the Lebanon; (i–l): P. bimucronatus from Turkey; a, g and k: basal parts of valves; d, h and l: distal parts of valves.Published as part of Sfenthourakis, Spyros, Hadjiconstantis, Michael, Makris, Christodoulos & Dimitriou, Andreas C., 2017, Revisiting the saproxylic beetle 'Propomacrus cypriacus Alexis & Makris, 2002' (Coleoptera: Euchiridae) using molecular, morphological and ecological data, pp. 1021-1034 in Journal of Natural History 51 (17-18) on page 1029, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2017.1319521, http://zenodo.org/record/518113
Use of ID-Based Cryptography for the Efficient Verification of the Integrity and Authenticity of Web Resources
No full textAs the amount of information resources on the Web keeps increasing so are the concerns for information integrity, confidentiality and authenticity. In Web 2.0 users are producers as well as consumers of content and metadata, which makes guaranteeing the authenticity and integrity of information critical. The scale of the Web requires that any proposals in this direction require minimal (if any) infrastructural or administrative changes. This paper proposes the use of ID-based cryptography (IBC) to address requirements for integrity and authenticity of Web resources using either the URL/URI of a resource or the DNS name part of if. This approach presents certain challenges, which are discussed along with the pros and cons of different designs and implementations
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Mitomycin C in highly myopic eyes - Author reply
No full textOphthalmology. 2005 Feb;112(2):208-18; discussion 219.
Mitomycin C modulation of corneal wound healing after photorefractive keratectomy in highly myopic eyes.
Gambato C, Ghirlando A, Moretto E, Busato F, Midena E.
SourceRefractive Surgery Service and Antimetabolite Therapy Research Unit, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of topical mitomycin C in corneal wound healing (CWH) after photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in highly myopic eyes.
DESIGN: Prospective, double-masked, randomized clinical trial.
PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-two eyes of 36 patients affected by high (>7 diopters) myopia.
METHODS: In each patient, one eye was randomly assigned to PRK with intraoperative topical 0.02% mitomycin C application, and the fellow eye was treated with a placebo. Postoperatively, mitomycin C-treated eyes received artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months), whereas the fellow eye was treated with fluorometholone sodium 2% and artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), contrast sensitivity, manifest refraction, and biomicroscopy. Contrast sensitivity was determined using the Pelli-Robson chart. Corneal confocal microscopy documented CWH.
RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 18 months (range, 12-36). No side effects or toxic effects were documented. At 12-month follow-up examination, UCVAs (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution) were 0.4+/-0.48 and 0.5+/-0.53 (P = .03) in mitomycin C-treated eyes and corticosteroid-treated eyes, respectively. At 1 year, corneal haze developed in 20% of corticosteroid-treated eyes, versus 0% of mitomycin C-treated eyes. At 12, 24, and 36 months, corneal confocal microscopy showed activated keratocytes and extracellular matrix significantly more evident in untreated eyes (Ps = 0.004, 0.024, and 0.046, respectively).
CONCLUSION: Topical intraoperative application of 0.02% mitomycin C can reduce haze formation in highly myopic eyes undergoing PRK.
Comment in
Ophthalmology. 2006 Feb;113(2):357; author reply 357-8
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Sleep disturbance as a predictor of anxiety in children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and typically developing children
No full textBACKGROUND: High levels of anxiety and sleep problems are common features of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). The strong association between sleep and anxiety has been documented in typically developing (TD) populations and is thought to be bidirectional. The association between sleep and anxiety in children with FASD has not yet been examined.METHODS: Caregivers of children with FASD (n = 91) and TD children (n = 103) aged 6-16 completed the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS), and a background questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses, group comparisons and ANCOVA interaction models were used to test the associations between sleep and anxiety within and between the two groups.RESULTS: Sleep disturbances and anxiety were at clinical levels for the majority of the FASD group, and significantly higher in the FASD group than the TD group. After controlling for age and sex, 27 % of the variance in anxiety scores in TD children was attributable to sleep problems, and 33 % in children with FASD.CONCLUSION: This study highlights associations between parent-reported sleep and anxiety in FASD. Sleep disturbances were significant predictors of anxiety in both children with FASD and in TD children. Given the importance of sleep to healthy neurodevelopment, there is a pressing need for sleep intervention studies in children with FASD. Early identification and intervention for sleep problems in this condition should be a therapeutic priority.</p
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