Calf massager: Intervention for body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing

Many occupations require workers to stand for long periods of time without proper interventions, which causes discomfort in the back and lower limbs. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effectiveness in alleviating body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing through the use of a calf massager. This study was conducted among male workers at a manufacturer with production line workers and the list was obtained from the HR Department and simple random sampling was done by number categorization. A total of 100 respondents (50 respondents for both the control and the experimental groups) participated in this study. The experiment took place in a room with a similar setup for the production line. Each respondent was requested to perform the simulated task for 2 hr. For the experimental group, the calf massager was turned on every 15 min. At every 15‐min interval after turning on the calf massager, respondents from both groups were required to evaluate their discomfort level on a Borg's scale CR‐10 questionnaire. The results showed that the level of body discomfort among respondents in the experimental group reduced (20–30%) compared with that of the control group. Multivariate analysis results revealed that the discomfort rating for the lower back, knees, thighs, calves, and feet was significantly lower (p < .05) among the experimental group compared with the control group. For lower body parts, the lower back region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 90th, 105th, and 120th min; the thigh region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 120th min; the knee region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 105th and 120th min; the calf region was statistically significant (p < .05) at all minute intervals except the 15th and 45th min, while the feet region, was statistically significant at the 105th and 120th min. Therefore, this study indicates that calf massage treatment is capable of reducing body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing and highlights the significance of calf massage.     

PETROLEUM POTENTIAL, THERMAL MATURITY AND THE OIL WINDOW OF OIL SHALES AND COALS IN CENOZOIC RIFT BASINS, CENTRAL AND NORTHERN THAILAND

Oil shales and coals occur in Cenozoic rift basins in central and northern Thailand. Thermally immature outcrops of these rocks may constitute analogues for source rocks which have generated oil in several of these rift basins. A total of 56 oil shale and coal samples were collected from eight different basins and analysed in detail in this study. The samples were analysed for their content of total organic carbon (TOC) and elemental composition. Source rock quality was determined by Rock‐Eval pyrolysis. Reflected light microscopy was used to analyse the organic matter (maceral) composition of the rocks, and the thermal maturity was determined by vitrinite reflectance (VR) measurements. In addition to the 56 samples, VR measurements were carried out in three wells from two oil‐producing basins and VR gradients were constructed. Rock‐Eval screening data from one of the wells is also presented. The oil shales were deposited in freshwater (to brackish) lakes with a high preservation potential (TOC contents up to 44.18 wt%). They contain abundant lamalginite and principally algal‐derived fluorescing amorphous organic matter followed by liptodetrinite and telalginite (Botryococcus‐type). Huminite may be present in subordinate amounts. The coals are completely dominated by huminite and were formed in freshwater mires. VR values from 0.38 to 0.47%R_o show that the exposed coals are thermally immature. VR values from the associated oil shales are suppressed by 0.11 to 0.28%R_o. The oil shales have H/C ratios >1.43, and Hydrogen Index (HI) values are generally >400 mg HC/g TOC and may reach 704 mg HC/ gTOC. In general, the coals have H/C ratios between about 0.80 and 0.90, and the HI values vary considerably from approximately 50 to 300 mg HC/gTOC. The HI_max of the coals, which represent the true source rock potential, range from ～160 to 310 mg HC/g TOC indicating a potential for oil/gas and oil generation. The steep VR curves from the oil‐producing basins reflect high geothermal gradients of ～62°C/km and ～92°C/km. The depth to the top oil window for the oil shales at a VR of ～0.70%R_o is determined to be between ～1100 m and 1800 m depending on the geothermal gradient. The kerogen composition of the oil shales and the high geothermal gradients result in narrow oil windows, possibly spanning only ～300 to 400 m in the warmest basins. The effective oil window of the coals is estimated to start from ～0.82 to 0.98%R_o and burial depths of ～1300 to 1400 m (～92°C/km) and ～2100 to 2300 m (～62°C/km) are necessary for efficient oil expulsion to occur.     

一种新的直扩超宽带系统快速同步方案

本文提出了一种新的基于能量窗的直扩超宽带系统码片同步方法，通过设计具有重复特性的码来提高能量窗的信噪比，从向可以较为准确地获得码片同步，并将窗口中的信息作为接收端本地信号与接收信号进行匹配接收，这样可以存未知接收信号相位的情况下有效地接收多径能量，提高接收信噪比。在完成码片同步之后再进一步进行PN码的相位同步，这里以线性搜索为例分析得到超宽带信号总的平均同步时间，并与现有的超宽带同步方案进行了比较，新方案将信号捕获分成两部分完成，大大降低了超宽带信号捕获时间。     

Comparative Study of Different Adaptive Window Protocols

We study an Adaptive Window Protocol (AWP) with general increase and decrease profiles in the presence of window dependent random losses. We derive a steady-state Kolmogorov equation, and then obtain its solution in analytic form for particular TCP versions proposed for high speed networks, such as Scalable TCP and HighSpeed TCP. We also relate window evolution under an AWP to workload process in queueing systems; this observation gives us a way to compare various AWP protocols.     

基于DOS的多窗口系统的设计与实现

窗口系统是人机交互的基本环境，与目前ＤＯＳ上的窗口系统相比，本文力求突出高效，低开销，具有多任务模拟能力，满足可移植性，实用性和开放性目标，本文首先提出一个基于ＤＯＳ的多窗口系统ＷＩＮＤ的总体设计，采用面向对象技术，讨论了其多窗口管理机制的特征和方法，并设计和实现了该系统相关的基本工具，最后通过编程环境、界面风格和应用实例等进一步介绍该窗口系统的应用接口。     

Passive solar systems for heating, daylighting and ventilation for rooms without an equator-facing facade

Spaces without northerly orientations have an impact on the ‘energy behaviour’ of a building. This paper outlines possible energy savings and better performance achieved by different zenithal solar passive strategies (skylights, roof monitors and clerestory roof windows) and element arrangements across the roof in zones of cold to temperate climates typical of the central and central-southern Argentina. Analyses were undertaken considering daylighting, thermal and ventilation performances of the different strategies. The results indicate that heating, ventilation and lighting loads in spaces without an equator-facing facade can be significantly reduced by implementing solar passive strategies. In the thermal aspect, the solar saving fraction reached for the different strategies were averaged 43.16% for clerestories, 41.4% for roof monitors and 38.86% for skylights for a glass area of 9% to the floor area. The results also indicate average illuminance levels above 500 lux for the different clerestory and monitor arrangements, uniformity ratios of 0.66–0.82 for the most distributed arrangements and daylighting factors between 11.78 and 20.30% for clear sky conditions, depending on the strategy. In addition, minimum air changes rates of 4 were reached for the most extreme conditions.     

测量输入光窗台阶指标的指示表的选择

阐述了对近贴聚焦型微通道板像增强管中输入光窗台阶高度和平整度指标进行测量时，所用指示仪表的选择依据，并详细分析了指示表在检定过程中的误差来源，进一步计算出其合成标准不确定度和扩展不确定度，从而选定可用于测试的指标表。     

Air flow through a non-airconditioned bus with open windows

Open window buses without air-conditioning are a major mode of urban and inter-city transport in most countries. High occupancy combined with hot and humid conditions makes travel in these buses quite uncomfortable. In this study air flow through a bus has been studied that could be the basis for low cost and eco-friendly methods of increasing passenger comfort and possibly reduce drag. The aerodynamics of such a road vehicle has not been studied as previous investigations have been confined to vehicles with closed windows that present a smooth exterior to air flow. Using a 1:25 scaled Perspex model of an urban bus in Delhi, flow visualization was performed in a water channel. The Reynolds numbers were one-tenth of a real bus moving at 10 m/s. Smoke and tuft visualizations were also performed on an urban bus at 40 km/h. Numerical simulations were performed at the actual Reynolds number. Even though there were Reynolds number differences, the broad features were similar. Air enters the bus from the rear windows, moves to the front (relative to the bus) and exits from the front windows. Inside air velocity relative to the bus is about one-tenth of the free-stream velocity. The flow is highly three-dimensional and unsteady.     

Analysis and Optimization of the Energy Efficiency in the 802.11 DCF

This paper introduces an analytical model to investigate the energy efficiency of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordinated function (DCF). This model not only accounts for the number of contending nodes, the contention window, but also the packet size, and the channel condition. Based on this model, we identify the tradeoff in choosing optimum parameters to optimize the energy efficiency of DCF in the error-prone environment. The effects of contention window and packet size on the energy efficiency are examined and compared for both DCF basic scheme and DCF with four-way handshaking. The maximum energy efficiency can be obtained by combining both the optimal packet size and optimal contention window. To validate our analysis, we have done extensive simulations in ns-2, and simulation results seem to match well with the presented analytical results. The Ohio Board of Regents Doctoral Enhancements Funds and the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR 0113361 have supported this work. Xiaodong Wang received his B.S. degree in communication engineering from Beijing Information Technical Institute of China in 1995, and his M.S. degree in electric engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics of China in 1998. He joined China Telecom in 1998 where he worked on communication protocols for telecommunication. From June 2000 to July 2002, he worked on GSM base station software development at Bell-labs China, Beijing, China. Currently he is a Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering at University of Cincinnati. His research activities include wireless MAC protocols, energy saving for wireless sensor networks. He is a student member of the IEEE. Jun Yin received the BS degree in automatic control from Dalian Railway Institute of China in 1997, and the MS degree in flight control from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics of China in 2001. Since 2001 she has been a Ph.D. student in the OBR Research Center for Distributed and Mobile Computing at the University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include performance evaluation of 802.11 MAC protocol, wireless ad hoc networks and sensor networks. She is a student member of the IEEE. Dharma P.Agrawal IEEE Fellow, 1987; ACM Fellow, 1998; AAAS Fellow, 2003 Dr. Agrawal is the Ohio Board of Regents Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Cincinnati, OH. He has been a faculty member at Wayne State University, (1977–1982) and North Carolina State University (1982–1998). He has been a consultant to the General Dynamics Land Systems Division, Battelle, Inc., and the U. S. Army. He has held visiting appointment at AIRMICS, Atlanta, GA, and the AT&T Advanced Communications Laboratory, Whippany, NJ. He has published a number of papers in the areas of Parallel System Architecture, Multi computer Networks, Routing Techniques, Parallelism Detection and Scheduling Techniques, Reliability of Real-Time Distributed Systems, Modeling of C-MOS Circuits, and Computer Arithmetic. His recent research interest includes energy efficient routing, information retrieval, and secured communication in ad hoc and sensor networks, effective handoff handling and multicasting in integrated wireless networks, interference analysis in piconets and routing in scatternet, use of smart directional antennas (multibeam) for enhanced QoS, Scheduling of periodic real-time applications and automatic load balancing in heterogeneous workstation environment. He has four approved patents and three patent filings in the area of wireless cellular networks.