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There are performance deficiencies that hamper the deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in critical monitoring applications. Such applications are characterized by considerable network load generated as a result of sensing some characteristics of the monitored system. Excessive packet collisions lead to packet losses and retransmissions, resulting in significant overhead costs and latency. In order to address this issue, we introduce a distributed and scalable scheduling access scheme that mitigates high data loss in data-intensive sensor networks and can also handle some mobility. Our approach alleviates transmission collisions by employing virtual grids that adopt Latin Squares characteristics to time slot assignments. We show that our algorithm derives conflict-free time slot allocation schedules without incurring global ov...
The purpose of this study was to focus on how school districts are using online opportunities, activities, and programs for teacher professional development. The goal of
this study was to identify the key indicators of success from principals and central office staff that implement online professional development opportunities in their public school districts.
The research questions investigated how public school district located in Western Pennsylvania are using online professional development opportunities for teacher
professional growth. After an initial survey of the 109 public school superintendents in Intermediate Units 1,3,4, and 27, final participants were selected based on varying
student and faculty populations, and that have indicated they have been using online professional development opportunities for teachers K-12 ...
Targets of merger deals experience signficant value increases in the days leading up to the announcement of a deal. Existing literature attributes the run up in target value solely to deal anticipation and, as such, the run-up is regarded as being uninformative about the surplus that can be generated from the deal. I find empirical evidence that target runup is positively related to bidder gain and to deal completion probability and that these results are strongest when the level of uncertainty regarding deal surplus is high. The results suggest that target runup reflects the market consensus about the deal surplus
and that this independent outside signal of deal surplus allows bidder insiders to update their priors and improve their decision making in regards to the deal. These results add to our understanding of managerial learning ...
Social Q&A provides the possibility of looking into how people verbally express their information needs in natural language. In this study, we analyzed linguistic properties of different types of questions on the topic of eating disorders in Yahoo! Answers. Using term frequency analysis, Partof- Speech (POS) analysis, and sentiment analysis, we examined linguistic content, linguistic style, and emotional expressions in two broad categories of eating disorder questions from Yahoo! Answers – socio-emotional questions and informational questions.
Overall, the results of this study show that the language used in these two categories of questions are substantially different, suggesting the different nature of the needs that underlie these questions. Socio-emotional questions take similar characteristics to personal narratives, focusing on ...
The purpose of this study is to enrich our understanding of social question and answer (Q&A) sites as a health information source for teens. To do so we investigated answers to 81 informational questions about eating disorders posted in Yahoo! Answers, a social Q&A site. Through a content analysis, we found that users do not always respond to eating disorder questions with credible, factual information, even if the need for it was expressed in the question. The findings suggest that people who pose questions in Yahoo! Answers use it as a social and emotional scaffold rather than an informational source, even if their questions are couched in terms that suggest they are seeking information. Further, a large portion of the people who answer such questions understand this to be the purpose and rarely provide answers drawn from evidence-ba...
This study investigated the use of Bayesian Networks (BNs) for left ventricular assist device (LVAD) therapy; a treatment for end-stage heart failure that has been steadily growing in popularity over the past decade. Despite this growth, the number of LVAD implants performed annually remains a small fraction of the estimated population of patients who might benefit from this treatment. We believe that this demonstrates a need for an accurate stratification tool that can help identify LVAD candidates at the most appropriate point in the course of their disease. We derived BNs to predict mortality at five endpoints utilizing the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS) database: containing over 12,000 total enrolled patients from 153 hospital sites, collected since 2006 to the present day, and consis...
This research addresses questions of policy transfer, specifically, policy uploading – the upward transfer of national policies to the European level. It contributes to three bodies of literature, namely, institutional theory, new governance, and European Union politics. The questions it addresses are why and how European Union member countries use the Council Presidency to upload their national policies, and what are the conditions needed for policy uploading to be successful. To answer these questions I use the case studies method and compare the Council Presidencies of the United Kingdom (2005), France (2008), the Czech Republic (2009), Sweden (2009), and Belgium (2010). For each case, specific national policies are looked at and I use process-tracing to identify the variables at play for successful uploading to occur.
Based on qu...
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a microvascular complication that typically occurs with greater frequency as disease duration increases. Both the American Diabetes Association and the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes make recommendations that patients be screened for retinopathy starting at age 10 and after a disease duration of greater than 2 years. Because it is important to catch DR early to prevent vision loss to the patient, sensitive screening techniques such as digital fundus photography are in important tool in this effort. The public health cost of DR complications can be effectively reduced by instituting smarter screening recommendations, not screening those who are at very low risk, and preventing vision loss by early identification and treatment of DR.
In this study, patients attending a large pedia...
Flash bainite is a new type of microstructure developed from new heat treatment process called “Flash Processing”. Using less treatment time, the result is the high performance steel with mixed microstructure of bainite and martensite. This research aimed to study the characteristics of this process using typical low carbon steel, with 0.1-wt% C. The experiments have been done with two similar types of steels, one with vanadium and one without. Two rates of heat treatment and 3 different heating temperatures have been set up and experiments were conducted to twelve samples. The results show 2 groups of different samples, with and without bainite in the final microstructure. The samples that were heat-treated to 950 °C resulted in fractions of bainite in the end. The microstructures and characteristics of flash bainite have been studied...
