Improving the health care and public health critical infrastructure

If you think in terms of your lifetime, you may ponder that while the hours, minutes, and seconds of a day have remained the same, the amount of information that you have received, let's say, in the 1980s compared with now, 2008, is drastically different. The size of information received in a day now is larger than what you have received in the past years. The information age has also created a wide range of tools, technologies, and techniques that continuously deliver enormous amounts of data, information, and knowledge. We are increasingly flooded with e-mails that routinely have a plethora of documents (in electronic form) that come in all shapes and forms (multimedia etc.) and more sophisticated types of data and information transmissions from sensing and monitoring devices as well. To compound this issue, there are usually no rules or standards, other than common sense, on how or where we should store all this information or knowledge. The bad news is that, with so much of information flow, it is difficult to filter in just the piece that may be needed at the right time. In many cases, we may not be aware where that information may be or if it exists somewhere at all. However, an information glut caused by a combination of pervasive systems and converging technologies may allow us to get useful and, at times, critical information anywhere and at the right time. In the past decade, with the proliferation of the Internet and the World Wide Web, many past and ongoing efforts have tried to improve the movement from text documents and database records to automated reasoning. This process is critical in particular for information sharing. This article provides a background of knowledge management for public health information infrastructure, followed by an illustration of the complexity of knowledge management for health care. We then present an evolving framework for semantic expression that would enable the sharing and exchange of knowledge in public health.     

Solid domestic wastes as a renewable resource: European experience

Ways in which different types of solid domestic wastes, such as wastepaper, crushed glass, plastics and worn-out tires, can be efficiently included into the production, raw-material, and energy balances of the national economy are shown taking Germany and other European countries an example. Methods for recycling these solid domestic wastes and application fields of the obtained products are discussed.     

Protection of the health care and public health critical infrastructure and key assets

I write these lines with mixed emotions. Our dearest friend Swamy is now with us only in spirit. I coedited past special issues of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine with him, namely, The New Face of Terrorism: Combating Bioterrorism with Biomedical Engineering [1], a year after 9/11 (September/October 2002), and Protecting the Homeland: The Many Facets of Homeland Security, January/February 2004 [2]. Therefore, I would like to dedicate this body of work to his memory. This special issue is also the last to be published under the guidance, and the tender love and care, of John Enderle, as the editor-in-chief of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine. As an editor-in-chief, John Enderle provided an extraordinary service for the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) and IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine. As the editorial remarks in the 2004 issue reflect: Editor-in-Chief John Enderle's foresight to keep our readers abreast of the current and upcoming developments and initiatives is a source of constant encouragement to the biomedical engineering community to take on a broader role in the continuing fight against terrorism. I take this opportunity to thank John for all the years of strong and visionary leadership and for the wonderful opportunities that he provided to bring forward before the EMBS community broader, meaningful, and highly relevant scholarly perspectives, which attempted to tackle the tough and persistent problems so evident in the times in which we live.     

Utilities and health: Energy efficiency as a common link

The interconnections between health, housing and energy are increasingly apparent. Fossil fuel combustion has a clear negative effect on public health, with impacts that are disproportionately felt among communities of color, the poor, and other vulnerable populations in the U.S. and globally. Energy efficiency has a well-documented positive impact on household health, including decreases in asthma and cardiovascular disease. The utility industry has an important role to play in improving the health of its customers.     

高职院校学生顶岗实习管理的探索与研究

顶岗实习是高等职业院校有效推进工学结合人才培养模式的最重要的形式,也是培养高技能人才的重要途径.只有加强顶岗实习的管理与教学,全面抓好顶岗实习教育教学环节,才能切实有效推进工学结合教育人才培养模式,确保高等职业院校人才培养质量.     

Health care, public health, and the food and agriculture critical infrastructures

The safety of U.S. citizens and the global consumers of U.S. food products is at significant risk. Approximately 76 million people in the United States contract an illness from consuming contaminated food products each year, 325,000 of these victims require hospitalization, and approximately 5,000 die from their illness [1]. Contaminated food product incidents from 2006 to the present highlight the severity of this risk. The spinach Escherichia coli (E. coli) outbreak in 2006, the iceberg lettuce E. coli outbreak at Taco Bell restaurants in 2006, the peanut butter salmonella outbreak in 2007, the contaminated pet food outbreak in 2007, and the nationwide salmonella outbreak initially thought to have been caused by contaminated tomatoes in 2008 caused widespread national concern and demanded that the U.S. Government should adopt a national approach for ensuring U.S. food product safety. With approximately one in four U.S. consumers contracting illnesses from contaminated food products annually, the United States must develop and use a national food product safety management enterprise architecture (EA) to protect this critical national infrastructure industry.     

Ethanol used as an environmentally sustainable energy resource for thermal power plants

Justification of using renewable energy sources and a brief analysis of their application prospects is given. The most common renewable energy sources for mobile thermal power plants are presented. The possibilities and ways of using ethanol as an energy source for such plants with diesel engines are analyzed. It is shown that it is feasible to add small amounts of ethanol to oil diesel fuel (DF) for obtaining an environmentally sustainable energy source for diesel engines. Therewith, a stable mixture of components can be obtained by adding anhydrous (absolute) ethanol to the oil fuel. The authors studied a mixture containing 4% (by volume) of absolute ethanol and 96% of oil DF. The physicochemical properties of the mixture and each of its components are presented. Diesel engine of the type D-245.12S has been experimentally studied using the mixture of DF and ethanol. The possibility of reducing the toxicity level of the exhaust emissions when using this mixture as an energy source for diesel engines of mobile power plants is shown. Transition of the studied diesel engine from oil DF to its mixture with ethanol made it possible to reduce the smoke capacity of the exhaust gases by 15–25% and to decrease the specific mass emissions of nitrogen oxides by 17.4%. In this case, we observed a slight increase in the exhaust gas emissions of carbon monoxide and light unburned hydrocarbons, which, however, can easily be eliminated by providing the exhaust system of a diesel engine with a catalytic converter. It is noted that the studied mixture composition should be optimized. The conclusion is made that absolute ethanol is a promising ecofriendly additive to oil diesel fuel and should be used in domestic diesel engines.     

PhysioNet: a Web-based resource for the study of physiologicsignals

Free access to a signals archive and a signal processing/analysis software library fosters online collaboration. This article aims to introduce PhysioNet as a resource to the biomedical research community. After a capsule summary of its history and goals, we discuss what PhysioNet offers to researchers, describe some of the technology needed to support these functions, and conclude with observations gleaned from PhysioNet's first year of service     

档案知识资源管理新模式建设

结合某大型电网公司档案知识资源管理模式的创新,首先对目前档案进行了科学的分类,并对档案管理模式及存在的问题进行了分析,再从原理模型、管理模式、业务过程、结构模型、系统结构和保障体系等方面论述了档案知识资源管理的建设。通过实施结果表明,推动了公司档案信息化上台阶,有效提高档案管理水平和工作效益。     

以设备生命周期管理为核心的供电企业配电地理信息系统

文章介绍了昆明供电局在配电地理信息系统的建设和运用过程中,以设备生命周期管理为核心,结合配电业务、配电工作、配网分析、系统接口、Web发布等功能模块,实现昆明供电局配电生产业务的流程化、标准化、信息化管理的情况。该系统已在昆明供电局投入运行,并于2006年3月通过了云南电网公司的鉴定验收。该系统的成功应用为对配电网进行有效管理提供了一种新的思路和技术手段。     

State-of-the-art carrier PWM techniques: a critical evaluation

With the introduction and wide acceptance of gate-turnoff power drives, e.g., bipolars, power FETs, GTOs, the switching behaviour of converters has reached the point where further improvements in firing and switching networks bring out only marginal benefits. Consequently, the research interests in the area of static converters have been shifting toward improving the process of power conversion through a combination of novel circuit topologies and improved voltage and harmonic control PWM (pulsewidth modulation) techniques. As a result, several such techniques have been proposed lately. Although these techniques are clearly superior to the original sine PWM technique, little or conflicting data is available about their merits relative to each other. A critical evaluation of the aforementioned PWM techniques on the basis of application is provided, thereby giving the framework and guidelines for the selection of the best technique for each area of application     

Evaluation of Load Management as an Electric System Resource

Load Management is currently being evaluated by many utilities, including San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), as a demand-side alternative to conventional electric system resources. The industry has identified improved load factors, capacity benefits, and lowering system costs as major operational benefits of load management, but there are still many uncertainties associated with its use as an electric system resource. This paper will address two specific areas. The first area is intended to establish general resource requirements, from the operating standpoint, that can be applied to all resources, Conventional and Alternate. The second area will address the potential of load management as an electric system resource. The SDG&E air conditioner control program will be evaluated in detail utilizing the established resource requirements.     

Development of a scheduling algorithm for resource leveling in local time intervals

A scheduling algorithm has been developed for resource leveling in a plant construction schedule. The algorithm facilitates resource profile smoothing as well as resource peak flattening, through a combination of global leveling with a variance-based performance index and local leveling. The local resource leveling, done after the global leveling, further improves minor fluctuations and local peaks in the resource profile that are insensitive to the variance-based performance index. The local resource leveling is based on two steps: definition of a target resource profile for chosen local time intervals; and heuristic optimization which shifts the resource profile towards the target curve. The scheduling algorithm developed has been experimentally applied to a practical problem of simulating a plant construction schedule with about 5000 tasks. It was confirmed from the numerical results that local resource leveling is a promising way to refine the resource profile after global resource leveling. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Electr Eng Jpn, 122(4): 34–44, 1998     

Computer software: federal policy for a critical technology

It is suggested that a federal policy to promote software for commercial as well as military needs is justified based on the many needs the US has for software, and the inability of the private sector alone to adequately advance the technology required to meet those needs. Since the government has already taken significant steps toward a dual-use software policy, an expensive new program is not needed. Incremental changes in current federal activities related to software could be taken to promote greater sharing of software technology between the military and commercial sectors, and to reap bigger benefits from federal expenditures to develop new software technology. The largest challenge would be for the federal government to develop the capacity to analyze the many ways it influences software technology, and to develop a coherent strategy for promoting technology-through support for RandD, education and training, and trade and economic laws. By doing so, the federal government would not be trying to pick winners and losers, but would rather be taking steps to ensure that software remains a big winner for the US     

电力需求侧管理与电源建设同等重要

我国目前对电力需求侧管理(DSM)工作非常重视,2004年4月6日黄菊副总理在《致全国电力需求侧管理经验交流会的信》中就提出:要建立需求侧管理的长效机制,指出“电力是我国经济社会发展的‘先行官’。加快电力工业的发展,一方面要十分重视电源、电网建设、优化资源配置,保证电力供应;另一方面,要高度重视电力需求侧管理。”“加强需求侧管理工作,必须采取法律的、行政的、经济的、技术的等各种手段。各级政府要把需求侧管理工作纳入能源发展和经济社会发展的总体规划,统一研究,统一部署。要不断完善有关的法律法规,建立需求侧管理的长效机制…     

Multi-agent system for energy resource scheduling of integrated microgrids in a distributed system

This paper proposes a multi-agent system for energy resource scheduling of an islanded power system with distributed resources, which consists of integrated microgrids and lumped loads. Distributed intelligent multi-agent technology is applied to make the power system more reliable, efficient and capable of exploiting and integrating alternative sources of energy. The algorithm behind the proposed energy resource scheduling has three stages. The first stage is to schedule each microgrid individually to satisfy its internal demand. The next stage involves finding the best possible bids for exporting power to the network and compete in a whole sale energy market. The final stage is to reschedule each microgrid individually to satisfy the total demand, which is the addition of internal demand and the demand from the results of the whole sale energy market simulation. The simulation results of a power system with distributed resources comprising three microgrids and five lumped loads show that the proposed multi-agent system allows efficient management of micro-sources with minimum operational cost. The case studies demonstrate that the system is successfully monitored, controlled and operated by means of the developed multi-agent system.     

水电资源的现状与未来

介绍目前世界上替代化石燃料的再生能源中，水力发电可作为最清洁、丰富的电力资源。论述和分析水电资源的当前状况以及未来发展的趋势。     

涉外项目以合同为中心的设计管理

要认识到涉外项目的开发和执行与国内项目存在的差异;正确的合同观念、按照国际惯例执行合同是建设国际工程公司的基本要素。     

Applications of cortical signals to neuroprosthetic control: a critical review.

Cortical signals might provide a potential means of interfacing with a neuroprosthesis. Guidelines regarding the necessary control features in terms of both performance characteristics and user requirements are presented, and their implications for the design of a first generation cortical control interface for a neuroprosthesis are discussed.