Effect of rate of change of slip on the peak braking coefficient of passenger car tires. Technical report.

Mode of access: Internet.

Development techniques and organizational climate : an evaluation of the comparative importance of two potential forces for organizational change : technical report /

"Funded by the Office of Naval Research, Organizational Effectiveness Research Programs, under Contract no. N00014-67-A-0181-0013, NR 170-719/7-29-68 (Code 452)"

Development techniques and organizatinal change : an overview of results from the Michigan inter-company longitudinal study : technical report /

"Funded by the Office of Naval Research, Group Psychology Programs, under Contract no. N00014-67-A-0181-0013, NR 170-719/7-29-68 (Code 452)"

Technical efficiency:efficiency, change, technical progress and productivity growth in the national health systems of continental African countries

In May 2006, the Ministers of Health of all the countries on the African continent, at a special session of the African Union, undertook to institutionalise efficiency monitoring within their respective national health information management systems. The specific objectives of this study were: (i) to assess the technical efficiency of National Health Systems (NHSs) of African countries for measuring male and female life expectancies, and (ii) to assess changes in health productivity over time with a view to analysing changes in efficiency and changes in technology. The analysis was based on a five-year panel data (1999-2003) from all the 53 countries of continental Africa. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) - a non-parametric linear programming approach - was employed to assess the technical efficiency. Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (MTFP) was used to analyse efficiency and productivity change over time among the 53 countries' national health systems. The data consisted of two outputs (male and female life expectancies) and two inputs (per capital total health expenditure and adult literacy). The DEA revealed that 49 (92.5%) countries' NHSs were run inefficiently in 1999 and 2000; 50 (94.3%), 48 (90.6%) and 47 (88.7%) operated inefficiently in 2001, 2002, and 2003 respectively. All the 53 countries' national health systems registered improvements in total factor productivity attributable mainly to technical progress. Fifty-two countries did not experience any change in scale efficiency, while thirty (56.6%) countries' national health systems had a Pure Efficiency Change (PEFFCH) index of less than one, signifying that those countries' NHSs pure efficiency contributed negatively to productivity change. All the 53 countries' national health systems registered improvements in total factor productivity, attributable mainly to technical progress. Over half of the countries' national health systems had a pure efficiency index of less than one, signifying that those countries' NHSs pure efficiency contributed negatively to productivity change. African countries may need to critically evaluate the utility of institutionalising Malmquist TFP type of analyses to monitor changes in health systems economic efficiency and productivity over time. African national health systems, per capita total health expenditure, technical efficiency, scale efficiency, Malmquist indices of productivity change, DEA

Profit sharing, technical efficiency change and finance constraints

This paper analyses the mechanisms through which profit-sharing schemes may induce debt constrained firms to improve technical efficiency over time to guarantee positive profits. This hypothesis is first formalised in a partial equilibrium framework and then is tested on a sample of Italian traditional and cooperative firms. Technical efficiency change indexes are computed by DEA. These are regressed on a measure of finance constraints to analyse their impact on firms’ efficiency growth. The results support the hypothesis that a restriction in the availability of financial resources can affect positively the growth in efficiency in firms with profit-sharing schemes.

A discussion on volume change in the plastic phase

This technical note discusses the possibility of using a more simplified scheme to estimate the plastic multiplier when some material shows volume changes, e.g. soil, balsa wood foam and other similar materials. Two procedures regarding volume changes during the plastic phase are discussed here. The first one is the classic procedure applied to non-associative plasticity, for which a Drucker-Prager-like surface is adopted to represent the plastic potential. For the second procedure, the plastic potential is not explicitly known, however, its orthogonal direction is chosen respecting a plastic volume change parameter similar to Poisson`s ratio. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Technical and economic resources management in smart grids using heuristic optimization methods

Intensive use of Distributed Generation (DG) represents a change in the paradigm of power systems operation making small-scale energy generation and storage decision making relevant for the whole system. This paradigm led to the concept of smart grid for which an efficient management, both in technical and economic terms, should be assured. This paper presents a new approach to solve the economic dispatch in smart grids. The proposed methodology for resource management involves two stages. The first one considers fuzzy set theory to define the natural resources range forecast as well as the load forecast. The second stage uses heuristic optimization to determine the economic dispatch considering the generation forecast, storage management and demand response

Oral health in the family health strategy: a change of practices or semantics diversionism

OBJECTIVE:To evaluate public health dentistry practices of two different family health models. METHODS: Qualitative study conducted with data obtained from focus groups consisting of 58 dentists working in the Family Health Strategy for at least three years between August-October, 2006. The Paideia Family Health Approach was used in the city of Campinas and the Oral Health Initiative as part of the Family Health Strategy was implemented in the city of Curitiba, Southeastern and Southern Brazil, respectively. Data was analyzed using the hermeneutic-dialectic method. Analysis indicators were employed to indicate backwardness, stagnation or progress in oral health practices effective from the implementation of the strategies referred. The indicators used were: work process; interdisciplinary approach; territorialization; capacity building of human resources; health promotion practices; and responsiveness to users' demands. RESULTS: There was progress in user access to services, humanization of health care, patient welcoming and patient-provider relationship. The results related to health promotion practices, territorialization, interdisciplinary approach and resource capacity building indicated a need for technical and operational enhancements in both cities. CONCLUSIONS: Both models have brought about important advances in terms of increased access to services and humanization of health care. Universal access to oral health at all levels of complexity was not achieved in both cities studied. Local health managers and oral health program coordinators must bring more weight to bear in the arena that defines public policy priorities.

Optimal behavior of responsive residential demand considering hybrid phase change materials

Due to communication and technology developments, residential consumers are enabled to participate in Demand Response Programs (DRPs), control their consumption and decrease their cost by using Household Energy Management (HEM) systems. On the other hand, capability of energy storage systems to improve the energy efficiency causes that employing Phase Change Materials (PCM) as thermal storage systems to be widely addressed in the building applications. In this paper, an operational model of HEM system considering the incorporation of more than one type of PCM in plastering mortars (hybrid PCM) is proposed not only to minimize the customerâ s cost in different DRPs but also to guaranty the habitantsâ  satisfaction. Moreover, the proposed model ensures the technical and economic limits of batteries and electrical appliances. Different case studies indicate that implementation of hybrid PCM in the buildings can meaningfully affect the operational pattern of HEM systems in different DRPs. The results reveal that the customerâ s electricity cost can be reduced up to 48% by utilizing the proposed model.

Los objetos técnicos y los organismos tecnificados. Reflexiones filosóficas, estéticas y políticas sobre la técnica. Technical objects and technified organisms. Philosophical, aesthetical and political approaches on technique

El presente proyecto se propone como parte inicial de una investigación sobre la relación entre naturaleza/cultura/técnica. Tradicionalmente la naturaleza y la cultura se han considerado como ámbitos diferenciados y opuestos. Y es en esta distinción donde la técnica adquiere un lugar central. El pensamiento occidental sobre la técnica ha recibido diversas interpretaciones: desde una subordinación con respecto al conocimiento verdadero (episteme) en la filosofía clásica, un optimismo sobre la técnica como posibilidad de dominación de la naturaleza en el Renacimiento y la Ilustración, y la ambigüedad y desasosiego romántico (Mitcham, 1979). Durante el siglo XX se distinguen dos posiciones antagónicas sobre la técnica. Por un lado, una actitud “crítica” donde pueden identificarse los trabajos de filósofs de diferentes tradiciones como Ortega y Gasset (1939), Heidegger (1954), Mumford (1971) Ellul (1960) y la Escuela de Frankfurt. Por otro lado, una filosofía de la técnica “ingenieril” que consiste en el análisis de la tecnología como un paradigma de pensamiento y acción humana. Esta dicotomía ha sido interpretada por Eco como “apocalípticos e integrados”. Más allá de las mencionadas diferencias, lo que tienen en común ambas posiciones es que parten de una dicotomía entre cultura y naturaleza. Nuestra perspectiva rechaza esta dicotomía, por el contrario, evidenciamos una creciente imbricación entre ambas donde las fronteras entre una y otra se hacen difusas. La noción de “objeto técnico” propuesta por Simondon (2007) hace referencia a la inserción del objeto técnico en la cultura, donde debe reconocerse la “realidad humana” presente en el mismo. Ahora bien, esto no significa “humanizar el objeto técnico”, sino más bien indagar sobre el lugar que este ocupa en la cultura como también establecer su relación con la naturaleza. En el siglo XVII el hombre mismo es reinterpretado como máquina (La Mettrie, 2000). En la actualidad pueden identificarse dos tendencias en la concepción de la técnica: los «humanos-máquinas» y las «máquinas-humanas», en otras palabras, la disposición del humano hacia la máquina y la tendencia de la máquina hacia lo humano. No obstante, ambas posiciones siguen manteniendo una distinción taxonómica entre el cuerpo –o lo orgánico- y lo maquínico, lo que implica una consideración de esta relación de manera extrínseca. Frente a esta tensión Haraway propone el concepto de cyborg: «un organismo cibernético» (1995). Los desarrollos tecnológicos han producido una modificación tal en la vida de los seres orgánicos en los cuales ya no puede concebirse su cuerpo independientemente de la tecnología. Esto conduce a replantear la distinción entre “animales/hombres/máquinas”, entendiendo a los mismos como expresiones de naturaleza, cultura y tecnología respectivamente. Nuestra investigación parte de la hipótesis que la técnica diluye diferencias de orden natural y cultural a través de los objetos técnicos que son productos culturales. La estética se ocupa de la percepción sensible del mundo no puede eludir su dimensión técnica. Al margen de la crítica a la “Industria cultural” consideramos relevante la aproximación de Benjamin al problema de la técnica porque aborda la imbricación antes mencionada en el campo de la percepción. Según Benjamin la irrupción de la técnica al mismo tiempo que posibilita una estetización de la política que confluye en el fascismo como punto extremo también abre la posibilidad de desmontar la ideología del progreso infinito (1967). Una integración entre aproximaciones estéticas y políticas a la técnica Flusser (1983) propone la “caja negra” como metáfora de la técnica contemporánea. Su propuesta es la “apertura de la caja negra” que consiste en tomar conocimiento del funcionamiento del dispositivo. Nuestra propuesta de investigación aborda la técnica desde una consideración filosófica/estética/política, donde redefiniremos la técnica partiendo de la imbricación entre cultura y naturaleza. This project will set the basis for a sustained research on the relation nature/culture/technique. They have been traditionally considered as separate and even opposite fields. And it is on the brink of this distinction where technique plays a central role. In Western thought technique has received many interpretations since the beginnings of philosophy: from a subordination to true knowledge (episteme) in classic philosophy, or the optimism which sees in technique the possibility of dominating nature in the Renaissance and in the Enlightenment, to the Romantic ambiguity and uneasiness towards technological change (Mitcham, 1979). During the twentieth century two opposed approach on technique prevail. On one hand, a “critical” attitude such defines the work of philosophers of different traditions such as Ortega y Gasset (1939), Heidegger (1954), Mumford (1971) Ellul (1960) and the Frankfurt School. On the other hand there is an “engineering” philosophy of technique that consists in the analisis of technology as a paradigm to understand human action and thought. Besides their differences, both positions have in common a dichotomy between nature and culture. We reject such dichotomy. On the contrary we consider there is a growing intertwinement between both which blurs the borders of the concepts. Simondon’s notion of “technical object” refers to the insertion of the technique in culture where the “human reality” in it must be recognised. This does not imply “humanising the technical object”, but investigate on the role it plays on culture and establishing its relation to nature. To articulate this relation we will work with unorthodox approaches on technique such as Benjamin (1967), Flusser (1983) and others. The hypothesis of our project is that the traditional distinction of “animal/man/machine” must be re-thought, therefore raising the question on the blurring line between nature, culture and technique and its effects in philosophy, politics and aesthetics.

Multi-modal Change Detection, Application to the Detection of Flooded Areas: Outcome of the 2009-2010 data fusion contest

The 2009-2010 Data Fusion Contest organized by the Data Fusion Technical Committee of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society was focused on the detection of flooded areas using multi-temporal and multi-modal images. Both high spatial resolution optical and synthetic aperture radar data were provided. The goal was not only to identify the best algorithms (in terms of accuracy), but also to investigate the further improvement derived from decision fusion. This paper presents the four awarded algorithms and the conclusions of the contest, investigating both supervised and unsupervised methods and the use of multi-modal data for flood detection. Interestingly, a simple unsupervised change detection method provided similar accuracy as supervised approaches, and a digital elevation model-based predictive method yielded a comparable projected change detection map without using post-event data.

CO2 emissions embodied in international trade: A multiregional Inputoutput model for Spain

As a result of globalization and free trade agreements, international trade is enormously growing and inevitably putting more pressure on the environment over the last few decades. This has drawn the attention of both environmentalist and economist in response to the ever growing concerns of climate change and urgent need of international action for its mitigation. In this work we aim at analyzing the implication of international trade in terms of CO2 between Spain and its important partners using a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model. A fully integrated 13 regions MRIO model is constructed to examine the pollution responsibility of Spain both from production and consumption perspectives. The empirical results show that Spain is a net importer of CO2 emissions which is equivalent to 29% of its emission due to production. Even though the leading partner with regard to import values are countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain, the CO2 embodied due to trade with China takes the largest share. This is mainly due to the importation of energy intensive products from China coupled with Chinese poor energy mix which is dominated by coal-power plant. The largest portion (67%) of the global imported CO2 emissions is due to intermediate demand requirements by production sectors. Products such as Motor vehicles, chemicals, a variety of machineries and equipments, textile and leather products, construction materials are the key imports that drive the emissions due to their production in the respective exporting countries. Being at its peak in 2005, the Construction sector is the most responsible activity behind both domestic and imported emissions.

Temporo-Parietal Junction encodes the Embodied Self: Neuro-Robotics, fMRI, and Lesion mapping.

Introduction: Neuroimaging of the self focused on high-level mechanisms such as language, memory or imagery of the self. Recent evidence suggests that low-level mechanisms of multisensory and sensorimotor integration may play a fundamental role in encoding self-location and the first-person perspective (Blanke and Metzinger, 2009). Neurological patients with out-of body experiences (OBE) suffer from abnormal self-location and the first-person perspective due to a damage in the temporo-parietal junction (Blanke et al., 2004). Although self-location and the first-person perspective can be studied experimentally (Lenggenhager et al., 2009), the neural underpinnings of self-location have yet to be investigated. To investigate the brain network involved in self-location and first-person perspective we used visuo-tactile multisensory conflict, magnetic resonance (MR)-compatible robotics, and fMRI in study 1, and lesion analysis in a sample of 9 patients with OBE due to focal brain damage in study 2. Methods: Twenty-two participants saw a video showing either a person's back or an empty room being stroked (visual stimuli) while the MR-compatible robotic device stroked their back (tactile stimulation). Direction and speed of the seen stroking could either correspond (synchronous) or not (asynchronous) to those of the seen stroking. Each run comprised the four conditions according to a 2x2 factorial design with Object (Body, No-Body) and Synchrony (Synchronous, Asynchronous) as main factors. Self-location was estimated using the mental ball dropping (MBD; Lenggenhager et al., 2009). After the fMRI session participants completed a 6-item adapted from the original questionnaire created by Botvinick and Cohen (1998) and based on questions and data obtained by Lenggenhager et al. (2007, 2009). They were also asked to complete a questionnaire to disclose the perspective they adopted during the illusion. Response times (RTs) for the MBD and fMRI data were analyzed with a 3-way mixed model ANOVA with the in-between factor Perspective (up, down) and the two with-in factors Object (body, no-body) and Stroking (synchronous, asynchronous). Quantitative lesion analysis was performed using MRIcron (Rorden et al., 2007). We compared the distributions of brain lesions confirmed by multimodality imaging (Knowlton, 2004) in patients with OBE with those showing complex visual hallucinations involving people or faces, but without any disturbance of self-location and first person perspective. Nine patients with OBE were investigated. The control group comprised 8 patients. Structural imaging data were available for normalization and co-registration in all the patients. Normalization of each patient's lesion into the common MNI (Montreal Neurological Institute) reference space permitted simple, voxel-wise, algebraic comparisons to be made. Results: Even if in the scanner all participants were lying on their back and were facing upwards, analysis of perspective showed that half of the participants had the impression to be looking down at the virtual human body below them, despite any cues about their body position (Down-group). The other participants had the impression to be looking up at the virtual body above them (Up-group). Analysis of Q3 ("How strong was the feeling that the body you saw was you?") indicated stronger self-identification with the virtual body during the synchronous stroking. RTs in the MBD task confirmed these subjective data (significant 3-way interaction between perspective, object and stroking). fMRI results showed eight cortical regions where the BOLD signal was significantly different during at least one of the conditions resulting from the combination of Object and Stroking, relative to baseline: right and left temporo-parietal junction, right EBA, left middle occipito-temporal gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, right medial parietal lobe, bilateral medial occipital lobe (Fig 1). The activation patterns in right and left temporo-parietal junction and right EBA reflected changes in self-location and perspective as revealed by statistical analysis that was performed on the percentage of BOLD change with respect to the baseline. Statistical lesion overlap comparison (using nonparametric voxel based lesion symptom mapping) with respect to the control group revealed the right temporo-parietal junction, centered at the angular gyrus (Talairach coordinates x = 54, y =-52, z = 26; p>0.05, FDR corrected). Conclusions: The present questionnaire and behavioural results show that - despite the noisy and constraining MR environment) our participants had predictable changes in self-location, self-identification, and first-person perspective when robotic tactile stroking was applied synchronously with the robotic visual stroking. fMRI data in healthy participants and lesion data in patients with abnormal self-location and first-person perspective jointly revealed that the temporo-parietal cortex especially in the right hemisphere encodes these conscious experiences. We argue that temporo-parietal activity reflects the experience of the conscious "I" as embodied and localized within bodily space.

Technological change and the wealth of nations

We discuss a unified theory of directed technological change and technologyadoption that can shed light on the causes of persistent productivity differencesacross countries. In our model, new technologies are designed in advanced countries and diffuse endogenously to less developed countries. Our framework is richenough to highlight three broad reasons for productivity differences: inappropriatetechnologies, policy-induced barriers to technology adoption, and within-countrymisallocations across sectors due to policy distortions. We also discuss the effectsof two aspects of globalization, trade in goods and migration, on the wealth ofnations through their impact on the direction of technical progress. By doing so,we illustrate some of the equalizing and unequalizing forces of globalization.

Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council Final Report 2008.

On April 27, 2007, Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed Senate File 485, a bill related to greenhouse gas emissions. Part of this bill created the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council (ICCAC), which consists of 23 governor-appointed members from various stakeholder groups, and 4 nonvoting, ex officio members from the General Assembly. ICCAC’s immediate responsibilities included submitting a proposal to the Governor and General Assembly that addresses policies, cost-effective strategies, and multiple scenarios designed to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions. Further, a preliminary report was submitted in January 2008, with a final proposal submitted in December 2008. In the Final Report, the Council presents two scenarios designed to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and 90% from a 2005 baseline by the year 2050. For the 50% reduction by 2050, the Council recommends approximately a 1% reduction by 2012 and an 11% reduction by 2020. For the 90% reduction scenario, the Council recommends a 3% reduction by 2012 and a 22% reduction 2020. These interim targets were based on a simple extrapolation assuming a linear rate of reduction between now and 2050. In providing these scenarios for your consideration, ICCAC approved 56 policy options from a large number of possibilities. There are more than enough options to reach the interim and final emission targets in both the 50% and 90% reduction scenarios. Direct costs and cost savings of these policy options were also evaluated with the help of The Center for Climate Strategies, who facilitated the process and provided technical assistance throughout the entire process, and who developed the Iowa Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and Forecast in close consultation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and many Council and Sub-Committee members. About half of the policy options presented in this report will not only reduce GHG emissions but are highly cost-effective and will save Iowans money. Still other options may require significant investment but will create jobs, stimulate energy independence, and advance future regional or federal GHG programs.