基于样本程序的领域开发平台的研究与实践

行业应用软件开发的工作主要是定制化的集成与组装工作，这种工作并不困难，但由于涉及到领域知识、管理、工程化等一系列的问题，所以想做好并不容易。除此之外，由于行业应用软件与通用软件有着很大的不同，所以传统的软件开发方法对行业应用软件并不能很好的适应。 为解决行业应用软件开发存在的问题，在全面分析研究行业应用软件和大量实践的基础上，提出了与组件业务建模(CBM)不同的组装业务建模(ABM)和样本程序，并设计了一个企业级的基于样本程序的领域开发平台来支持行业应用的开发和提升行业应用的开发效率与效果。 基于样本程序的领域开发平台通过组装业务建模(ABM)与组件业务建模 (CBM)来驱动行业应用软件的开发。在组装业务建模(ABM)部分包含了标准化组装、样本程序与个性化组装，通过标准化组装来进行差异化分析得到需求，再通过样本程序来对开发人员的实际开发工作进行指导与帮助，最终得到客户所要求的个性化组装。在组件业务建模(CBM)部分，主要是对于组件进行组织与管理，并不断积累组件和软件资源。除此之外，领域开发平台还通过样本程序的检查工具和编辑工具来对样本程序进行检查与编辑，提升样本程序的使用效果。 通过具体的应用，验证了平台能有效的提高软件复用率，极大的缩短行业应用软件的开发周期，减少信息系统的成本支出。

基于样本程序的领域开发平台的研究与实践

为了解决行业应用软件开发存在的问题,在全面分析研究行业应用软件和大量实践的基础上,提出了与组件业务建模(CBM)不同的组装业务建模(ABM)和样本程序,并设计了一个企业级的基于样本程序的领域开发平台来支持行业应用的开发和提升行业应用的开发效率与效果。平台通过组装业务建模(ABM)与组件业务建模(CBM)来驱动行业应用软件的开发,并通过样本程序来对行业应用软件的开发工作进行实际指导。实验结果表明了该平台能够有效地提高软件复用率,极大地缩短行业应用软件的开发周期,减少信息系统的成本支出。

Streaming Elements for FPGA Signal and Image Processing Accelerators

Field programmable gate array devices boast abundant resources with which custom accelerator components for signal, image and data processing may be realised; however, realising high performance, low cost accelerators currently demands manual register transfer level design. Software-programmable ’soft’ processors have been proposed as a way to reduce this design burden but they are unable to support performance and cost comparable to custom circuits. This paper proposes a new soft processing approach for FPGA which promises to overcome this barrier. A high performance, fine-grained streaming processor, known as a Streaming Accelerator Element, is proposed which realises accelerators as large scale custom multicore networks. By adopting a streaming execution approach with advanced program control and memory addressing capabilities, typical program inefficiencies can be almost completely eliminated to enable performance and cost which are unprecedented amongst software-programmable solutions. When used to realise accelerators for fast fourier transform, motion estimation, matrix multiplication and sobel edge detection it is shown how the proposed architecture enables real-time performance and with performance and cost comparable with hand-crafted custom circuit accelerators and up to two orders of magnitude beyond existing soft processors.

Static converter: didactic support software

Teaching a course of special electric loads in a continuing education program to power engineers is a difficult task because they are not familiarized with switching topology circuits. Normally, in a typical program, many hours are dedicated to explain the thyristors switching sequence and to draw the converter currents and terminal voltages waveforms for different operative conditions. This work presents teaching support software in order to optimize the time spent in this task and, mainly to benefit the assimilation of the proposed subjects, studying the static converter under different non-ideal operative conditions.

Short-term changes in axial length during simulations of typical far, intermediate and near tasks

Purpose: To investigate the changes in axial length with the combined effect of accommodation and angle of gaze (convergence and downward gaze) over 5 minutes in groups of myopes and emmetropes. Methods: A total of 31 subjects (nine emmetropes, 10 low myopes, and 12 moderate to high myopes) aged from 18 to 31 years were recruited. To measure ocular biometrics in inferonasal gaze with accommodation, an optical biometer (Lenstar LS900) was inclined on a tilt and height adjustable stage, with the subject’s chinrest mounted on a rotary stage to induce various levels of convergence by rotation of the subject’s head in primary or downward gaze. Initially, the subjects performed a distance viewing task in primary gaze for 10 minutes to provide a ‘wash-out’ period for prior visual tasks, and then the subject’s axial length and ocular biometrics were measured in nine different combinations of gaze/accommodation over 5 minutes. These nine sessions for all gaze measurements (i.e. three levels of accommodation 9 three levels of convergence) were completed across 3 days of testing (one accommodation condition on each day).The nine combinations of gaze/accommodation were based on those required to view the centre, right and left edges of a distant TV at 6 m in primary gaze, an intermediate task (i.e. computer at 50 cm in 10° downward gaze) and a near task (i.e. reading A4 page at 20 cm in 20° downward gaze). Subjects were wearing a custom built three-axes head tracker throughout the experiment that monitored subjects’ relative head movements (roll, pitch and yaw) during measurements. Results: A significant increase in axial length occurred with the combined effect of accommodation, convergence and downward gaze (repeated measures ANOVA, p < 0.001), with the greatest axial elongation during the near task in downward gaze with convergence (i.e. downward 20°/inward 33°, with 5 D accommodation) (mean change 33 ± 13 lm, after 5 minutes task) followed by the intermediate task (i.e. downward 10°/inward 25°, with 2 D accommodation) (mean change 14 ± 11 lm, after 5 minutes task).Changes in axial length for the distance task (i.e. primary gaze/9° convergence, with 0.16 D accommodation) were not statistically significant (mean change 4 ± 8 lm, after 5 minutes task, p > 0.05). Moderate to high myopes had a greater change in the axial length (mean change 40 ± 11 lm after 5 minutes of near task) than that of emmetropes (mean change 29 ± 15 lm after 5 minutes of near task) and low myopes (mean change 29 ± 16 lm after 5 minutes of near task) associated with time (p = 0.02) and accommodation by time (p = 0.03). Conclusions: The combination of accommodation, convergence and downward angle has a significant short term effect on axial length over time. The near task in downward gaze with convergence caused a greater change in axial length than the intermediate and distant visual tasks. The greater axial elongation measured in the infero-nasal direction with accommodation is most likely associated with a combination of biomechanical factors such as, extraocular muscle forces and ciliary muscle contraction.

Good choices, great future : an applied theatre prevention program to reduce alcohol-related risky behaviours during Schoolies

Introduction and Aims. The contextual and temporal factors of post-school celebratory events ('Schoolies') place young people at elevated risk of excessive drinking compared with other social occasions. This study investigates the impact of an applied theatre prevention program 'Choices' in reducing the risk of drinking and other risk behaviours during Schoolies celebrations. Design and Methods. Choices was delivered in the last term of Year 12 across 28 North Queensland schools. A total of 352 school leavers (43.1% male, mean age=17.14years) completed a questionnaire at Whitsunday Schoolies, Queensland, Australia on 23-24 November 2010. Nearly 49% of respondents had attended Choices. The survey included measures of alcohol use, illicit drug use and associated problems during Schoolies and a month prior to Schoolies. Results. After controlling for gender and pre-Schoolies drinking, school leavers who attended Choices were significantly less likely to report illicit drug use (OR=0.51, P<0.05) and problem behaviours (OR=0.40, P<0.01) than those who did not attend Choices. There was, however, no intervention effect in risky drinking (i.e. drank on 5 or more days, typical amount five or more standard drink and binge drank on 3 or more days) at Schoolies (OR=0.92, P=0.80). Discussion and Conclusions. Delivery of a youth-specific applied theatre prevention program employing a harm minimisation framework may be effective in reducing high-risk behaviours associated with alcohol consumption at celebratory events, even if young people expect to engage in excessive alcohol consumption. [Quek L-H, White A, Low C, Brown J, Dalton N, Dow D, Connor JP. Good choices, great future: An applied theatre prevention program to reduce alcohol-related risky behaviours during Schoolies. Drug Alcohol Rev 2012;31:897–902]

Developing emerging leaders in the library profession : program content, self-efficacy and leadership

This thesis used experimental and qualitative methods to determine that a typical, formal library leadership development intervention significantly enhanced the leadership self-efficacy of participants. The investigation also ascertained what program content and attributes affected leadership self-efficacy and how these elements either deterred or enhanced leadership self-efficacy development. Self-efficacy is critical to leadership emergence and effectiveness. Leadership succession has been identified as an issue in the library profession and society as a whole. The research confirmed that leadership development interventions with appropriate structure and content can be an effective mechanism to foster the emergence of leaders.

VERTICAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF SIZE-FRACTIONATED IRON IN THREE TYPICAL BAYS OF LAKE DIANCHI (CHINA)

In order to elucidate the vertical distributions of iron in three typical bays (Haigeng bay, Macun bay and Haidong bay) of Lake Dianchi (China), the investigation was conducted on March, 2003. Results showed that the vertical distributions were influenced by monsoon, cyanobacterial bloom and water depth as well as sediment resuspension, which indicated that their translocations and transformations were decided by geographical and physical as well as chemical and biological characteristics.

TYPICAL: A Knowledge Representation System for Automated Discovery and Inference

TYPICAL is a package for describing and making automatic inferences about a broad class of SCHEME predicate functions. These functions, called types following popular usage, delineate classes of primitive SCHEME objects, composite data structures, and abstract descriptions. TYPICAL types are generated by an extensible combinator language from either existing types or primitive terminals. These generated types are located in a lattice of predicate subsumption which captures necessary entailment between types; if satisfaction of one type necessarily entail satisfaction of another, the first type is below the second in the lattice. The inferences make by TYPICAL computes the position of the new definition within the lattice and establishes it there. This information is then accessible to both later inferences and other programs (reasoning systems, code analyzers, etc) which may need the information for their own purposes. TYPICAL was developed as a representation language for the discovery program Cyrano; particular examples are given of TYPICAL's application in the Cyrano program.

Bacteremic pneumonia before and after withdrawal of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine from a public vaccination program in Spain: a case-control study

The objective of this study is to compare the incidence and epidemiology of bacteremic community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in the setting of changes in 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) coverage. In the region of Madrid, universal immunization with the PCV13 started in May 2010. In July 2012, public funding ceased. Vaccination coverage decreased from >95% to 82% in 2013 and to 67% in 2014. We performed a multicenter surveillance and case-control study from 2009-2014. Cases were hospitalized children with bacteremic CAP. Controls were children selected 1:1 from next-admitted with negative blood cultures and typical, presumed bacterial CAP. Annual incidence of bacteremic CAP declined from 7.9/100 000 children (95% CI 5.1-11.1) in 2009 to 2.1/100 000 children (95% CI 1.1-4.1) in 2012. In 2014, 2 years after PCV13 was withdrawn from the universal vaccination program, the incidence of bacteremic CAP increased to 5.4/100 000 children (95% CI 3.5-8.4). We enrolled 113 cases and 113 controls. Streptococcus pneumoniae caused most of bloodstream infections (78%). Empyema was associated with bacteremia (P = .003, OR 3.6; 95% CI 1.4-8.9). Simple parapneumonic effusion was not associated with bacteremia. Incomplete PCV immunization was not a risk factor for bacteremic pneumonia.

Research Question, Study Design and Continuous Research Education and Training Exercises (CREATE) Program.

The clinical research project starts with identifying the optimal research question, one that is ethical, impactful, feasible, scientifically sound, novel, relevant, and interesting. The project continues with the design of the study to answer the research question. Such design should be consistent with ethical and methodological principles, and make optimal use of resources in order to have the best chances of identifying a meaningful answer to the research question. Physicians and other healthcare providers are optimally positioned to identify meaningful research questions the answer to which could make significant impact on healthcare delivery. The typical medical education curriculum, however, lacks solid training in clinical research. We propose CREATE (Continuous Research Education And Training Exercises) as a peer- and group-based, interactive, analytical, customized, and accrediting program with didactic, training, mentoring, administrative, and professional support to enhance clinical research knowledge and skills among healthcare professionals, promote the generation of original research projects, increase the chances of their successful completion and potential for meaningful impact. The key features of the program are successive intra- and inter-group discussions and confrontational thematic challenges among participating peers aimed at capitalizing on the groups' collective knowledge, experience and skills, and combined intellectual processing capabilities to optimize choice of research project elements and stakeholder decision-making.

Screening for success in a visual arts program.

Abstract: Little research has been directed towards determining means of predicting success in visual arts programs. Therefore, this study attemps to profile a typical successful student in a visual arts program, namely the Illustration & Design program at Dawson College. To this end, questionnaires, designed by the researcher, served to investigate the students' reasons for choosing the program as well as provide demographic data. In addition, students' personality types were investigated by means of the online Sternberg & Wagner Thinking Styles Inventory (SWTSI) questionnaire. Using the SPSS statistical software, an analysis was done to determine whether students who offer intrinsically motivated reasons for applying to the Illustration & Design program are those who also demonstrate greater academic success. Furthermore, grounding this study in Sternberg's theory of mental self governance, students' college grades were correlated to their personality type to determine if Type I personality types perform better academically than Type II or Type III (Zhang, 2005), The participants consisted of three cohorts (128 students form semester 1, 3 and 5) of the Illustration & Design program, as well as two comparison groups, one from the Fine Arts program (24 students), and another from the Business Administration program, a non-visual arts program at Dawson College (20 students).||Résumé: Les recherches portant sur l'identification de moyens qui permettent de prédire la réussite dans les programmes d'arts plastiques sont très rares. Par conséquent, cette étude tente de dresser le profil de l'élève type qui réussit dans un programme d'arts visuels, à savoir le programme Illustration & Design au Collège Dawson. À cette fin, des questionnaires conçus par le chercheur ont servi à déterminer les raisons pour lesquelles l'élève a choisi ce programme et ont permis de fournir des données démographiques. En outre, les étudiants ont été catégorisés par type de personnalité au moyen du questionnaire Sternberg & Wagner Thinking Styles Inventory (SWTSI). Grâce au logiciel statistique SPSS, une analyse a été effectuée afin de déterminer si les élèves dont la motivation comptait beaucoup dans leur choix du programme Illustration & Design étaient aussi ceux qui affichaient un taux de réussite plus élevé. En outre, en s'appuyant sur la Théorie d'autonomie de gestion mentale de Sternberg, cette étude avait pour but de corréler les résultats scolaires des élèves à leur personnalité afin de déterminer si les étudiants du Type de personnalité I avaient de meilleurs résultats scolaires que ceux de Type II et de Type III (Zhang, 2005). Les participants étaient composés de trois cohortes (128 étudiants des 1er, 3e et 5e semestres) du programme Illustration et Design ainsi que de deux groupes témoins, un groupe de 24 élèves du programme de Techniques de l'Administration, programme en dehors des arts visuels.

Social impact bond feasibility study: Children and youth at risk: the Projecto Família program

Social impact bonds are an increasingly popular method of unlocking typical social investment barriers and fuelling social innovation. This feasibility study aims to understand whether a social impact bond is a suitable tool for decreasing unnecessary foster care placements in Portugal, which have been proven to cause significant social and financial damage to societies. This research question is answered through a financial model which combines the costs of this social problem with Projecto Família’s intervention model, a leading intensive family preservation service. Main findings suggest using SIB funding for a 5-year project with the goal of generating the proper impact measurement metrics lacking in the field.

A blended classroom program

This paper presents a model project on reverse mainstreaming, incorporating children with typical hearing into a classroom with hearing-impaired children at the preschool level.

CDASH: a cloud-enabled program for structure solution from powder diffraction data

The simulated annealing approach to crystal structure determination from powder diffraction data, as implemented in the DASH program, is readily amenable to parallelization at the individual run level. Very large scale increases in speed of execution can be achieved by distributing individual DASH runs over a network of computers. The CDASH program delivers this by using scalable on-demand computing clusters built on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud service. By way of example, a 360 vCPU cluster returned the crystal structure of racemic ornidazole (Z0 = 3, 30 degrees of freedom) ca 40 times faster than a typical modern quad-core desktop CPU. Whilst used here specifically for DASH, this approach is of general applicability to other packages that are amenable to coarse-grained parallelism strategies.