Proposed Framework for Evaluating Quality of Experience in a Mobile,Testbed-oriented Living Lab Setting

The framework presented in this paper enables the evaluation of Quality of Experience (QoE) in a mobile, testbed-oriented Living Lab setting. As a result, it fits within the shift towards more user-centric approaches in innovation research and aims to bridge the gap between technical parameters and human experience factors. In view of this, Quality of Experience is seen as a multi-dimensional concept, which should be considered from an interdisciplinary perspective. Although several approaches for evaluating perceived QoE have been proposed in the past, they tend to focus on a limited number of objective dimensions and fail to grasp the subjective counterparts of users’ experiences. We therefore propose a distributed architecture for monitoring network Quality of Service (QoS), context information and subjective user experience based on the functional requirements related to real-time experience measurements in real-life settings. This approach allows us to evaluate all relevant QoE-dimensions in a mobile context.     

Arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury in meat, livers and kidneys of sheep slaughtered in The Netherlands

Summary The results obtained between 1981 and 1986 in a Dutch monitoring programme investigating the presence of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury in meat, livers and kidneys of sheep are presented. For the meat, livers and kidneys, the median values were 0.001, 0.003,and 0.007 mg/kg (fresh weight) for arsenic; 0.003, 0.054, and 0.098 mg/kg for cadmium; 0.04, 0.85, and 0.36 mg/kg for lead; and 0.001, 0.002, and 0.007 mg/kg for mercury. During the reported period, no clear trends were observed. The results are compared with the data from other countries. The mercury and arsenic concentrations in meat and organs may be regarded as low, but the levels of lead in livers are relatively high. The lead concentrations in livers showed seasonal fluctuations, the highest concentrations usually being found during the winter. Significant linear relationships were found between the concentrations in livers and kidneys for arsenic, cadmium and mercury. Tissue trace element levels were not related to the age of the investigated animals.

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Arsen, Cadmium, Blei und Quecksilber in Fleisch, Leber und Niere von Schafen in den Niederlanden

Zusammenfassung Es wird über die Ergebnisse der Jahre zwischen 1981 und 1986 eines holländischen Überwachungsprogramms über das Vorkommen von Arsen, Cadmium, Blei und Quecksilber in Fleisch, Leber und Niere von Schafen berichtet. Für Fleisch, Leber und Niere lagen die ermittelten Medianwerte für Arsen bei 0,001 bzw. 0,003 und 0,007 mg/kg (bezogen auf Frischgewicht), für Cadmium bei 0,003 bzw. 0,054 und 0,098 mg/kg, für Blei bei 0,04 bzw. 0,85 und 0,36 mg/kg und für Quecksilber bei 0,001 bzw. 0,002 und 0,007 mg/kg. Die Gehalte zeigten keine signifikante Änderung während dieser Periode. Die Gehalte werden verglichen mit Angaben anderer Länder. Die Arsen- und Quecksilbergehalte unserer Untersuchung sind niedrig. Die Bleigehalte in Leber sind relativ hoch, sie zeigten Änderungen abhängig von der Jahreszeit. Die Höchstgehalte wurden gewöhnlich während der Winterzeit gefunden. Die Gehalte von Niere und Leber sind signifikant miteinander korreliert für die Elemente Arsen, Cadmium und Blei. Die Arsen-, Cadmium-, Blei- und Quecksilbergehalte von Fleisch und Organen sind nicht mit dem Alter der Tiere korreliert.

     

Evolution of syncytium-inducing and non-syncytium-inducing biological virus clones in relation to replication kinetics during the course of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection

To investigate the temporal relationship between human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replicative capacity and syncytium-inducing (SI) phenotype, biological and genetic characteristics of longitudinally obtained virus clones from two HIV-1-infected individuals who developed SI variants were studied. In one individual, the emergence of rapidly replicating SI and non-syncytium-inducing (NSI) variants was accompanied by a loss of the slowly replicating NSI variants. In the other subject, NSI variants were always slowly replicating, while the coexisting SI variants showed an increase in the rate of replication. Irrespective their replicative capacity, the NSI variants remained present throughout the infection in both individuals. Phylogenetic analysis of the V3 region showed early branching of the SI variants from the NSI tree. Successful SI conversion seemed a unique event since no SI variants were found among later-stage NSI variants. This was also confirmed by the increasing evolutionary distance between the two subpopulations. At any time point during the course of the infection, the variation within the coexisting SI and NSI populations did not exceed 2%, indicating continuous competition within each viral subpopulation.     

Growth,condensation and departure of small and large vapour bubbles in pure and binary systems

Theoretical analyses of bubble growth and implosion, utilizing semi-differential forms for the heat and mass equations, are presented. The effects of b (low Jacob number) and inertia (high Jacob number) controlled regimes. General solutions are obtained for small and large bubble.The treatment is extended to a binary system of a narrow concentration range of a more volatile component in an initially uniformly superheated bulk. T to non-uniform temperature field and are finally used to predict bubble departure size.Due to the presence of a more volatile component, the rate of growth is decreased, departure radius and adherence time are smaller; hence coalescence o higher boiling peak-flux. All results are in agreement with previous studies.     

Mycetoma of the foot; a disease from the tropics

Two patients, a Surinamese man aged 50 and a Surinamese woman aged 56 exhibited a mycetoma of the foot, 30 and 28 years, respectively, after a local injury. Pathological examination revealed an aspecific chronic granulomatous inflammation. As causative agents a Fusarium species and a Cladosporium normodendrum, respectively, were cultured. The treatment consisted of curettage of fistulous ducts and administration of itraconazole.     

Municipalities as a Driver for Wireless Broadband Access

Municipalities can form a driving force behind the deployment of new telecom infrastructure. While a telecom operator focuses on direct (financial) profits, a municipality is mainly interested in the social benefits for its inhabitants. In this paper, we evaluate a wireless municipality network from both a technical and an economic point of view. WiFi and WiMAX are considered as the most suited technologies for this purpose. A detailed techno-economic study has been performed including forecasting of the user adoption, dimensioning of the wireless network and modelling the related costs and revenues. The trade-off between installing a high number of relatively cheap WiFi access points, and a smaller number of more expensive WiMAX base stations for delivering full coverage is investigated in several scenarios.

A Novel Mechanism of Embrittlement Affecting the Impact Reliability of Tin-Based Lead-Free Solder Joints

This work addresses a new mode of brittle failure that occurs in the bulk of tin-based lead-free solder joints, unlike the typical brittle failures that occur in the interfacial intermetallics. Brittle failures in the joint bulk result from the low-temperature ductile-to-brittle transition in the fracture behavior of β-tin. The bulk embrittlement of these joints is discussed by referring to the results of impact tests performed on both solder joints and bulk solder specimens. The mechanism of bulk embrittlement is largely explained based on the results of a fractography study performed on the bulk joint failures using scanning electron microscopy.     

Fatigue assessment of offshore wind turbines on monopile foundations using multi‐band modal expansion

Offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are subjected to both quasi‐static loads originating from variations in the thrust force and dynamic loads linked to turbulence, waves and turbine dynamics. Both types of loads contribute to fatigue life progression and thus define the turbine's age. As a structural health monitoring solution, one could thus directly measure the stress history at fatigue critical locations. However, for OWTs on monopile foundations some fatigue critical locations are located below the seabed. Installing strain sensors at these hotspots is therefore impossible for existing wind turbines. This measurement restriction is overcome by reconstructing the full‐field response of the structure based on the limited number of accelerometers and strain sensors (installed at a few easily accessible locations) and a calibrated finite element model of the system. The system model uses a multi‐band modal expansion approach constituted of the quasi‐static and dynamic contributions. These contributions are superimposed to reconstruct the stress history at all degrees of freedom of the finite element model, and the subsequent assess fatigue life consumption at all fatigue hot spots of the OWT. In this paper, the proposed virtual sensing technique is validated by predicting the stresses in the transition piece with 12 days of consecutive measurements from an operational OWT. The data set contains both variations in environmental and operating conditions as well as extreme events. Finally, a full‐field strain assessment in the tower and foundation system of the OWT is demonstrated. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.