Upgrading a TCABR data analysis and acquisition system for remote participation using Java, XML, RCP and modern client/server communication/authentication

The TCABR data analysis and acquisition system has been upgraded to support a joint research programme using remote participation technologies. The architecture of the new system uses Java language as programming environment. Since application parameters and hardware in a joint experiment are complex with a large variability of components, requirements and specification solutions need to be flexible and modular, independent from operating system and computer architecture. To describe and organize the information on all the components and the connections among them, systems are developed using the extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. The communication between clients and servers uses remote procedure call (RPC) based on the XML (RPC-XML technology). The integration among Java language, XML and RPC-XML technologies allows to develop easily a standard data and communication access layer between users and laboratories using common software libraries and Web application. The libraries allow data retrieval using the same methods for all user laboratories in the joint collaboration, and the Web application allows a simple graphical user interface (GUI) access. The TCABR tokamak team in collaboration with the IPFN (Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa) is implementing this remote participation technologies. The first version was tested at the Joint Experiment on TCABR (TCABRJE), a Host Laboratory Experiment, organized in cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on ""Joint Research Using Small Tokamaks"". (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Palisada flagellifera (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) from the Canary Islands, Spain: a new record for the eastern Atlantic Ocean based on morphological and molecular evidence

Palisada flagellifera (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) is recorded for the first time in the eastern Atlantic Ocean off Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain. The specimens were collected in 2006-2009 growing from the lower intertidal to subtidal zones to 2 m depth at sites exposed to wave action. The species possesses a palisade-like arrangement of cortical cells in cross section, lacks secondary pit connections between them, and has tetrasporangia produced by three fertile pericentral cells (the third and the fourth additional and the second that becomes fertile), and a right-angled arrangement of tetrasporangia. Gametangia were not observed. The phylogenetic relationships were inferred by analyses of the chloroplast-encoded rbcL gene sequences from 46 taxa. The Canarian and Brazilian P. flagellifera specimens formed a highly supported clade with a low level of genetic variation in the rbcL sequences (0.02-0.04%), confirming that they are the same taxonomic entity. This study expands the geographical distribution of P. flagellifera to the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Adapting Web content for low-literacy readers by using lexical elaboration and named entities labeling

This paper presents an approach for assisting low-literacy readers in accessing Web online information. The oEducational FACILITAo tool is a Web content adaptation tool that provides innovative features and follows more intuitive interaction models regarding accessibility concerns. Especially, we propose an interaction model and a Web application that explore the natural language processing tasks of lexical elaboration and named entity labeling for improving Web accessibility. We report on the results obtained from a pilot study on usability analysis carried out with low-literacy users. The preliminary results show that oEducational FACILITAo improves the comprehension of text elements, although the assistance mechanisms might also confuse users when word sense ambiguity is introduced, by gathering, for a complex word, a list of synonyms with multiple meanings. This fact evokes a future solution in which the correct sense for a complex word in a sentence is identified, solving this pervasive characteristic of natural languages. The pilot study also identified that experienced computer users find the tool to be more useful than novice computer users do.

Early Onset Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder With and Without Tics

Introduction: Research suggests that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is not a unitary entity, but rather a highly heterogeneous condition, with complex and variable clinical manifestations. Objective: The aims of this study were to compare clinical and demographic characteristics of OCD patients with early and late age of onset of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS); and to compare the same features in early onset OCD with and without tics. The independent impact of age at onset and presence of tics on comorbidity patterns was investigated. Methods: Three hundred and thirty consecutive outpatients meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria for OCD were evaluated: 160 patients belonged to the ""early onset"" group (EOG): before 11 years of age, 75 patients had an ""intermediate onset"" (IOG), and 95 patients were from the ""late onset"" group (LOG): after 18 years of age. From the 160 EOG, 60 had comorbidity with tic disorders. The diagnostic instruments used were: the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and the Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (DY-BOCS), Yale Global Tics Severity Scale; and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders-patient edition. Statistical tests used were: Mann-Whitney, full Bayesian significance test, and logistic regression. Results: The EOG had a predominance of males, higher frequency of family history of OCS, higher mean scores on the ""aggression/violence"" and ""miscellaneous"" dimensions, and higher mean global DY-BOCS scores. Patients with EOG without tic disorders presented higher mean global DY-BOCS scores and higher mean scores in the ""contamination/cleaning"" dimension. Conclusion: The current results disentangle some of the clinical overlap between early onset OCD with and without tics. CNS Spectr. 2009; 14(7):362-370

PAIN IN FIBROMYALGIA AND DISCRIMINATIVE POWER OF THE INSTRUMENTS: VISUAL ANALOG SCALE, DOLORIMETRY AND THE MCGILL PAIN QUESTIONNAIRE

Objective: The aim of this study was to verify the discriminative power of the most widely used pain assessment instruments. Methods: The sample consisted of 279 subjects divided into Fibromyalgia Group (FM- 205 patients with fibromyalgia) and Control Group (CG-74 healthy subjects), mean age 49.29 +/- 10.76 years. Only 9 subjects were male, 6 in FM and 3 in CG. FM were outpatients from the Rheumatology Clinic of the University of Sao Paulo - Hospital das Clinicas (HCFMUSP); the CG included people accompanying patients and hospital staff with similar socio-demographic characteristics. Three instruments were used to assess pain: the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the Dolorimetry, to measure pain threshold on tender points (generating the TP index). In order to assess the discriminative power of the instruments, the measurements obtained were submitted to descriptive analysis and inferential analysis using ROC Curve - sensibility (S), specificity (S I) and area under the curve (AUC) - and Contingence tables with Chi-square Test and odds ratio. Significance level was 0.05. Results: Higher sensibility, specificity and area under the curve was obtained by VAS (80%, 80% and 0.864, respectively), followed by Dolorimetry (S 77%, S177% and AUC 0.851), McGill Sensory (S 72%, S167% and AUC 0.765) and McGill Affective (S 69%, S1 67% and AUC 0.753). Conclusions: VAS presented the higher sensibility, specificity and AUC, showing the greatest discriminative power among the instruments. However, these values are considerably similar to those of Dolorimetry.

Development of Electrochromic Devices

Electrochromic devices (ECD) are systems of considerable commercial interest due to their controllable transmission, absorption and/or reflectance. For instance, these devices are mainly applied to glare attenuation in automobile rearview mirrors and also in some smart windows that can regulate the solar gains of buildings. Other possible applications of ECDs include solar cells, small-and large-area flat panel displays, frozen food monitoring and document authentication also are of great interest. Over the past 20 years almost 1000 patents and 1500 papers in journals and proceedings have been published with the keyword ""electrochromic windows"". Most of these documents report on materials for electrochromic devices and only some of them about complete systems. This paper describes the first patents and some of the recent ones on ECDs, whose development is possible due to the advances in nanotechnology.