Integrated Sensor Systems for Vessels of Opportunity, National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton, UK, October 10-12,2006 : workshop proceedings

The use of self-contained, low-maintenance sensor systems installed on commercial vessels is becoming an important monitoring and scientific tool in many regions around the world. These systems integrate data from meteorological and water quality sensors with GPS data into a data stream that is automatically transferred from ship to shore. To begin linking some of this developing expertise, the Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) and the European Coastal and Ocean Observing Technology (ECOOT) organized a workshop on this topic in Southampton, United Kingdom, October 10-12, 2006. The participants included technology users, technology developers, and shipping representatives. They collaborated to identify sensors currently employed on integrated systems, users of this data, limitations associated with these systems, and ways to overcome these limitations. The group also identified additional technologies that could be employed on future systems and examined whether standard architectures and data protocols for integrated systems should be established. Participants at the workshop defined 17 different parameters currently being measured by integrated systems. They identified that diverse user groups utilize information from these systems from resource management agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to local tourism groups and educational organizations. Among the limitations identified were instrument compatibility and interoperability, data quality control and quality assurance, and sensor calibration andlor maintenance frequency. Standardization of these integrated systems was viewed to be both advantageous and disadvantageous; while participants believed that standardization could be beneficial on many levels, they also felt that users may be hesitant to purchase a suite of instruments from a single manufacturer; and that a "plug and play" system including sensors from multiple manufactures may be difficult to achieve. A priority recommendation and conclusion for the general integrated sensor system community was to provide vessel operators with real-time access to relevant data (e.g., ambient temperature and salinity to increase efficiency of water treatment systems and meteorological data for increased vessel safety and operating efficiency) for broader system value. Simplified data displays are also required for education and public outreach/awareness. Other key recommendations were to encourage the use of integrated sensor packages within observing systems such as 100s and EuroGOOS, identify additional customers of sensor system data, and publish results of previous work in peer-reviewed journals to increase agency and scientific awareness and confidence in the technology. Priority recommendations and conclusions for ACT entailed highlighting the value of integrated sensor systems for vessels of opportunity through articles in the popular press, and marine science. [PDF contains 28 pages]

International Seafood Conference 25. Jahrestagung der WEFTA (West European Fish Technologists' Association)

The 25th annual meeting of WEFTA was held in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, in November 1995 as an "International Seafood Conference". In 12 sessions 40 oral presentations and 60 posters were presented. The topics included among others: Quality assurance, consumer demands and behaviour, processing, packaging, distribution, nutrition, storage, analytical methodology. The conference was attended by 210 participants from 33 countries.

Weighting social preferences in participatory multi-criteria evaluations: a case study on sustainable natural resource management

28 p.

A novel non-intrusive sampling technique for CO2 laser on-line beam monitoring utilising a silicon mirror

The measurement of high speed laser beam parameters during processing is a topic that has seen growing attention over the last few years as quality assurance places greater demand on the monitoring of the manufacturing process. The targets for any monitoring system is to be non-intrusive, low cost, simple to operate, high speed and capable of operation in process. A new ISO compliant system is presented based on the integration of an imaging plate and camera located behind a proprietary mirror sampling device. The general layout of the device is presented along with the thermal and optical performance of the sampling optic. Diagnostic performance of the system is compared with industry standard devices, demonstrating the high quality high speed data which has been generated using this system.

A avaliação da atenção básica e o trabalho dos agentes comunitários de saúde: implantação do PMAQ-AB na região do Médio Paraíba Fluminense

Este estudo tem por objeto a implantação do Programa Nacional de Melhoria do Acesso e da Qualidade da Atenção Básica (PMAQ-AB) na região do Médio Paraíba fluminense sob o olhar dos Agentes Comunitários de Saúde e dos gestores da Atenção Básica. A indagação norteadora desta pesquisa foi: em que medida o Programa Nacional de Melhoria do Acesso e da Qualidade da Atenção Básica (PMAQ-AB) capta a importância do trabalho dos Agentes Comunitários de Saúde? Partindo do pressuposto que o desenvolvimento do PMAQ não se dá, no concreto, de forma linear nem livre de tensões, e que o trabalho do ACS, por seu caráter de mediação, é um campo privilegiado para análise sobre essas tensões. O objetivo geral do estudo é analisar a implantação do Programa Nacional de Melhoria do Acesso e da Qualidade da Atenção Básica (PMAQ-AB) nos municípios da região do Médio Paraíba do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, tomando como eixo de análise o processo de trabalho dos agentes comunitários de saúde. O estudo apresenta uma abordagem quantitativa e qualitativa, através de questionários, entrevistas e grupos focais e o método de análise dos dados qualitativos foi de base interpretativa com apoio do referencial da Hermenêutica-Dialética. O campo da pesquisa foi a região do Médio Paraíba fluminense. Os resultados evidenciam que na opinião dos gestores, o PMAQ aparece como uma estratégia norteadora do processo de trabalho das equipes, que possibilita o resgate de alguns princípios da ESF, já os ACS apontam que o seu primeiro contato com o PMAQ foi fundamentado na pactuação do cumprimento de metas que resultariam no pagamento de um incentivo financeiro. Percebemos que não existe uma crítica quanto a implantação do PMAQ, nem por parte da gestão, muito menos por parte das equipes. Não encontramos nos relatos dos gestores nenhuma menção ao trabalho do ACS, sua participação e importância em todas as fases do PMAQ. Os gestores consideram que o PMAQ promoveu uma mudança positiva na forma de organização do trabalho dos ACS. Os ACS não perceberam mudanças em sua rotina a partir da implantação do PMAQ, exceto pela questão da sobrecarga de trabalho. Conclui-se que o PMAQ-AB não capta a potencialidade e o trabalho dos ACS. A participação do ACS nas fases do PMAQ é identificada somente no aspecto instrumental, ou seja, dele ser um produtor, um registrador de informações.Para os gestores o PMAQ surge como algo que abre um horizonte positivo, de maior envolvimento e retomada de alguns processos pelas EAB, mas não é assim, de fato, que a questão chega até os ACS e, por consequência, nem para as equipes.

National Status and Trends Bioeffects Program: field methods

Environmental quality indicators provide resource managers with information useful to assess coastal condition and scientifically defensible decisions. Since 1984, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through its National Status and Trends (NS&T) Program, has provided environmental monitoring data on chemical, physical, and biological indicators of coastal environments. The program has two major monitoring components to meet its goals. The Bioeffects Assessments Program evaluates the health of bays, estuaries, and the coastal zone around the nation using the Sediment Quality Triad technique that includes measuring sediment contaminant concentrations, sediment toxicity and benthic community structure. The Mussel Watch Program is responsible for temporal coastal monitoring of contaminant concentrations by quantifying chemicals in bivalve mollusks. The NS&T Program is committed to providing the highest quality data to meet its statutory and scientific responsibilities. Data, metadata and information products are managed within the guidance protocols and standards set forth by NOAA’s Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the National Monitoring Network, as recommended by the 2004 Ocean Action Plan. Thus, to meet these data requirements, quality assurance protocols have been an integral part of the NS&T Program since its inception. Documentation of sampling and analytical methods is an essential part of quality assurance practices. A step-by–step summary of the Bioeffects Program’s field standard operation procedures (SOP) are presented in this manual.

Status of the shrimp sector in Bangladesh in the context of HACCP and trade issues: a review

Shrimp culture in Bangladesh has emerged as an important aquaculture industry over the last three decades although its culture in greater parts of the farming area is done in traditional ways. In the meantime, the government of Bangladesh has taken necessary measures along with the private sectors to increase production, upgrade processing industries and to promote export performance. Long supply chain in raw material collection, inadequate infrastructure facilities, poor level of cool chain and lack of adequate HACCP-based training on hygiene and sanitation of different groups of people involved in the field level are the main problems of quality loss of raw materials. Shortage of raw materials results in poor capacity utilization of the processing plants. The growth of bagda (P. monodon) hatchery has expanded rapidly over the last few years, remaining mostly concentrated in Cox's Bazar region is enough to meet the target production. However, there is a shortage of pelleted shrimp feed in Bangladesh. A large number of export processors are now producing increasing amounts of value-added products such as individually quick-frozen, peeled and divined, butterfly cut shrimp, as well as cooked products. The export earnings from value added products is about half of the total export value. About 95% of total fish products are exported to European countries, USA and Japan and the remaining to the Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Most of the EU approved shrimp processing industries have been upgraded with laboratory facilities and provided HACCP training to their workers. As of now, HACCP is applied on the processing plants, but to ensure the quality of raw materials and to reduce risks, shrimp farms are also required to adopt HACCP plan. There is increased pressure time to time from importing countries for fish processors to establish effective quality assurance system in processing plants. Fish Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC) of the Department of Fisheries while having moderately equipped laboratories with chemical, bio-chemical and microbiological testing facilities and qualified technical personnel, the creation of facilities for testing of antibiotics is underway. FIQC mainly supervises quality aspects of the processing plants and has little or no control over raw material supply chains from farm to processing plants. Bangladesh export consignments sometimes face rejection due to reported poor quality of the products. Three types of barriers are reported for export of shrimp to EU countries. These are:(1) government participation in trade and restrictive practices (state aid, countervailing duties, state trading enterprises, government monopoly practices), customs and administrative entry procedures (anti-dumping duties, customs valuation, classification, formalities, rules of origin); (2) technical barriers to trade or TBT (technical regulations, standards, testing, certification arrangement); (3) specific limitations (quantitative restrictions, import licensing, embargoes, exchange control, discriminatory sourcing, export restraints, measures to regulate domestic prices, requirements concerning marking, labeling and packaging).

软件属性保障中的源代码静态分析技术研究

随着硬件性能的不断提升，计算机正在被赋予越来越艰巨的任务，运行其上的软件作为沟通人类思维和底层硬件的桥梁，其重要性日益增加。与此同时，软件系统的规模也在不断变大，所涉及的逻辑也更为复杂，这导致开发人员难免会由于疏漏在软件设计实现的过程中引入缺陷、埋下隐患。所以,如何检验、确保软件的属性就成为时下一个亟待解决的热点问题。而在此背景下，源代码静态分析技术由于恰好可以弥补现有测试方法的不足，已经开始在这一研究领域崭露头角。有鉴于此，本文为了推进安全信息系统的研发，分别围绕源代码静态分析技术在软件属性保障中两个最主要的应用场景展开研究，涉及高等级安全操作系统开发过程中的源代码自动化审计，以及分布式信息系统中平台间互信建立时针对软件属性所进行的远程验证，其中，前者是为从深度上将现有安全操作系统向更高等级推进提供助力，而后者是为了从广度上将信息安全领域现有的围绕单机平台的研究成果向分布式架构推广建立基础。具体来说，本文选择针对编程接口规范的一致性检验和应用静态分析的软件属性远程验证作为研究的切入点，探讨了应用源代码静态分析技术检验、确保软件属性的方法和用途，主要取得以下几个方面的成果： 第一，本文给出了一个基于值等价类的别名分析方法。该方法依据相关的传值操作维护一个值等价类空间，可以在编程接口规范一致性检验的过程中按需推导变量符号间的等值关系，不仅有能力支持上下文相关、路径相关的全局分析，还可以有效应对C代码中因结构、指针等构件所衍生出来的大量变量符号。 第二，针对大部分现有代码静态分析工具分析规模受限的问题，本文围绕编程接口规范的一致性检验给出了可以与别名分析有效结合的性能优化方案。该方案不仅能通过剔除与分析无关的执行分支和引入缓存机制提高分析效率，还可以尽量确保分析的准确性少受影响。 第三，我们设计、实现了一个C代码静态分析工具ABAZER（A Bug AnalyZER）。该工具可以依据用户使用有限自动机模型描述的编程接口规范，对操作系统内核级别的软件进行全局分析，指出代码中可能有悖于规范的部分。我们使用ABAZER实际考查了FreeBSD内核中锁机制以及GCC 4.x中库GNU Libiberty的使用情况，从中发现了若干真实的缺陷。 第四，本文针对现有应用可信计算技术、基于完整性信息进行远程验证的方案在灵活性和实用性上所存在的不足，给出一个扩展方案。该方案通过引入虚拟机技术，在软件构建过程中收集举证信息，应用静态分析方法分析软件功能模块间的相关性，划分出与验证相关的模块，有效控制用户定制软件验证时所要依赖的可信列表的规模，使其有能力适应当今网络环境中的大量异质平台和各种安全需求。此外，它还可以为自身所依赖的可信计算基的替换和更新提供支持。 第五，本文针对Flask架构的特点，给出了一个既能检验强制访问控制实现正确性，又能最大限度保留软件灵活性、使得用户可以在一定程度上对软件进行定制的远程验证方案。该方案依赖源代码静态分析技术界定软件中无需基于完整性进行验证的模块，在进一步缩减可信列表规模的同时，使用代码改写技术在这些模块中自动化地插入监控代码约束软件的动态行为，以达到确保强制访问控制实现正确性的目的。该方案初步展现了源代码静态分析技术在远程验证中广阔的应用前景。

基于过程控制的软件质量管理

质量形成于过程.以预防为主的过程管理思想在软件产业引入了软件的工程过程、管理过程和支持过程三类基本过程,以过程为中心的软件开发、生产与质量管理是现代软件产业的时代特征.本文阐述了软件质量管理的基本原理,提出了一个基于CMM过程管理控制的软件质量管理模型及平台,帮助软件组织达到较高的成熟度水平.