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Technological advancement has facilitated patient-specific radiotherapy in bladder cancer. This has been made possible by developments in image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). Particularly transformative has been the integration of volumetric imaging into the workflow. The ability to visualise the bladder target using cone beam computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging initially assisted with determining the magnitude of inter- and intra-fraction target change. It has led to greater confidence in ascertaining true anatomy at each fraction. The increased certainty of dose delivered to the bladder has permitted the safe reduction of planning target volume margins. IGRT has therefore improved target coverage with a reduction in integral dose to the surrounding tissue. Use of IGRT to feed back into plan and dose delivery optimisation according to the anatomy of the day has enabled adaptive radiotherapy bladder solutions. Here we undertake a review of the stepwise developments underpinning IGRT and adaptive radiotherapy strategies for external beam bladder cancer radiotherapy. We present the evidence in accordance with the framework for systematic clinical evaluation of technical innovations in radiation oncology (R-IDEAL).

Conflicts often arise when large predators and free-ranging livestock share a common area. Various compensation schemes arc used to attempt solving these conflicts, but the costs of predation to suffering stakeholders arc often unknown. Semi-domesticated reindeer husbandry and large carnivores form one such system, where conflicts between predator conservation and the traditional livelihood are common. We apply an age- and sex-structured reindeer-lichen model to examine the effects of predation on reindeer management. Based on the previous studies we specify age- and sex-class-specific mortalities due to various predators, and study optimal reindeer husbandry under predation pressure and the costs of predation. We show that the costs of predation highly depend on the age-class-specific killing rates of reindeer by various predator species, but not on interest rate or pasture conditions. Regarding species that are more likely to kill adult reindeer in addition to calves, the total predation costs are clearly higher than the net slaughtering value of the predated animals. The decrease in steady-state yearly net income is highest for the gray wolf and lower for other predator species. Adapting to predation pressure includes increasing the size of the reindeer population in winter and changing the slaughtering age of males towards young adults, thus reducing the importance of calf harvesting. This result contrasts with the previous results from stage-structured models that do not fully include time lags related to long-living ungulate species. The costs of predation appear to be much higher in an ex post system than in a territorial compensation system, as in an cx post system herders have not adapted to the predation pressure and must search for the predated reindeer to gain compensations. Our results suggest that co-existence of a viable gray wolf population and profitable reindeer husbandry in the same area is not possible in most cases.

Deep Transfer Learning (DTL) is a new paradigm of machine learning, which can not only leverage the advantages of Deep Learning (DL) in feature representation, but also benefit from the superiority of Transfer Learning (TL) in knowledge transfer. As a result, DTL techniques can make DL-based fault diagnosis methods more reliable, robust and applicable, and they have been widely developed and investigated in the field of Intelligent Fault Diagnosis (IFD). Although several systematic and valuable review articles have been published on the topic of IFD, they summarized relevant research only from an algorithm perspective and overlooked practical applications in industry scenarios. Furthermore, a comprehensive review on DTL-based IFD methods is still lacking. From this insight, it is particularly important and more necessary to comprehensively survey the relevant publications of DTL-based IFD, which will help readers to conveniently understand the current state-of-the-art techniques and to quickly design an effective solution for solving IFD problems in practice. First, theoretical backgrounds of DTL are briefly introduced to present how the transfer learning techniques can be integrated with deep learning models. Then, major applications of DTL and their recent developments in the field of IFD are detailed and discussed. More importantly, suggestions on how to select DTL algorithms in practical applications, and some future challenges are shared. Finally, conclusions of this survey are given. At last, we have reason to believe that the works done in this article can provide convenience and inspiration for the researchers who want to devote their efforts in the progress and advance of IFD.

In this era, grand challenges lies in biodiversity loss, climate change, and global noncommunicable diseases signify that planet and humanity are in crisis. Scholarly evidence from human and animal kingdom suggest that there is an optimism in planetary health which can provide a unique and novel concept where efforts toward survival and remediation can be made. With accurate navigation, the current challenges can be mitigated leading to a new reality, one in which the core value is the well-being of all. This paper discusses the drivers of planetary health and the role of community health workers (CHWs) in making health-care system more resilient that can produce multiple benefits to community and overall planetary health. A web-based international database such as Google, Google Scholar, SCOPUS/MEDLINE/PubMed, and JSTOR was searched relevant to a planetary health framework. The study findings suggest that CHWs can offer health care interventions through environmental health cobenefits across the spectrum of health effects of climate change cause and effects. These actions have been divided into four major categories (i. health care promotion and prevention, ii. health care strengthening, iii. advocacy, and iv. education and research) that CHWs perform through a variety of roles and functions they are engaged in protecting planetary health. CHWs contribute toward achieving sustainable development goals such as planetary health and focus on environment sustainability and well-being of entire mankind.

Adaptation to climate change has become an important matter of discussion in the world in response to the growing rate of global warming. In recent years, many countries have gradually adopted adaption strategies to climate change, with the aim of reducing the impact of climate variabilities. Taiwan is in a geographical location that is prone to natural disasters and is thus very vulnerable to climate change. To explore an appropriate method for Taiwan to adapt to climate change, this study took Dajia River Basin as the simulation site to explore the potential climate change impact in the area. An impact study was conducted to identify the trend of flooding under climate change scenarios. We used the SOBEK model to simulate downstream inundation caused by the worst typhoon event of the 20th century (1979–2003) and for typhoon events that might occur at the end of the 21st century (2075–2099) in Taiwan, according to the climate change scenario of representative concentration pathways 8.5 (RCP8.5) and dynamical downscaling rainfall data. Agricultural lands were found to be the most affected areas among all land types, and the flooded area was forecast to increase by 1.89 times by the end of 21st century, when compared to the end of 20th century. In this study, upland crops, which are affected the most by flooding, were selected as the adaptation targets for this site and multiple engineering and non-engineering options were presented to reduce the potential climate change impacts. With respect to the results, we found that all adaptation options, even when considering the cost, yield higher benefits than the “do-nothing” option. Among the adaptation options presented for this site, utilizing engineering methods with non-engineering methods show the best result in effectively reducing the impact of climate change, with the benefit-to-cost ratio being around 1.16. This study attempts to explore useful and effective assessment methods for providing sound scientific and economic evidence for the selection of adequate adaption options for flood impacts in agriculture in the planning phase.

BACKGROUND: Translation of research into practice is a methodological challenge. The GLA:D® Back program was initiated to implement evidence-based care for people with low back pain inspired by GLA:D® (Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark) that has succeeded in implementing evidence-based care for knee and hip osteoarthritis. This study evaluates the spread and reach of promotion initiatives for GLA:D® Back clinician courses, and the adoption of the GLA:D® Back intervention in clinical practice.METHODS: Pre-defined success criteria addressed; i) spread; achievement of intended promotion activities (e.g. social media), ii) reach; recruitment of clinicians with certain profiles (e.g. gender balance). Adoption was defined as patient enrollment in the GLA:D® Back registry by course participants. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate associations between adoption and clinician characteristics.RESULTS: Most clinicians signed up based on information from colleagues (22%). Pre-defined goals for reach, except one, was obtained. 23% (140) of clinicians initiated the GLA:D® Back program in clinical practice within CONCLUSION: Future promotion strategies should recognize the influence of colleagues and professional networks. Converting clinician courses into patient care was mostly adopted physiotherapists. Although, evaluation processes were less useful in this study, future evaluation of health care processes has potential to inform the implementation of new models in future studies.

This study explored the effect of the light-off delay setting in a robotically controlled femtosecond laser on the taper and adaption of resin tooth preparations. Thirty resin teeth (divided into six equal groups) were studied under different light-off delay conditions. Tapers from six vertical sections of the teeth were measured and compared among the light-off delay groups. The mean taper decreased from 39.268° ± 4.530° to 25.393° ± 5.496° as the light-off delay increased (p &lt, 0.05). The average distance between the occlusal surfaces of the scanned data and the predesigned preparation data decreased from 0.089 ± 0.005 to 0.013 ± 0.030 μm as the light-off delay increased (p &lt, 0.05). The light-off delay of the femtosecond laser is correlated with the taper and adaption of automatic tooth preparations, this setting needs to be considered during automatic tooth preparation.

[EN] The research aims to determine which dimensions of intellectual capital influenced restaurants¿ strategic reaction to the coronavirus crisis. The analysis focuses on 227 restaurants that are listed on TripAdvisor as ¿the best restaurants from Iasi (Romania)¿. Data are collected from the annual reports and companies¿ websites. The relationship between the dependent variable (restaurants¿ reaction to the coronavirus pandemic) and the independent variables (human capital, structural capital, relational capital) is tested using binomial logistic regression. The results prove that the structural and relational capital can predict restaurants¿ strategic decisions in the time of crisis. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications; on the one hand, they expand the literature regarding restaurants¿ intellectual capital and on the other hand, they facilitate managers¿ understanding of how company¿s intellectual capital influences their strategic decisions during crisis.

Graphic abstract Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions leading to anthropogenic global warming continue to be a major issue for societies worldwide. A major opportunity to reduce emissions is to improve building construction, and in particular the effectiveness of building envelope, which leads to a decrease in operational energy consumption. Improving the performance of a building's thermal envelope can substantially reduce energy consumption from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning while maintaining occupant comfort. In previous work, a computational model of a biomimetic building façade design was found to be effective in temperate climates in an office context. Through a case study example based on animal fur and blood perfusion, this paper tests the hypothesis that biomimetic building facades have a broader application in different building typologies across a range of climate zones. Using bioinspiration for innovation opens new ideas and pathways for technological development that traditional engineering design does not provide. This study exemplifies the process in a building façade, integrating a new form of insulation, heating and cooling. Methods of mathematical modelling and digital simulation methods were used to test the energy reduction potential of the biomimetic façade was tested in a set of operational applications (office, school, and aged care) and across different climate zones (tropical, desert, temperate, and cool continental). Results indicated that the biomimetic façade has potential to reduce energy consumption for all building applications, with the greatest benefit shown in residential aged care (67.1% reduction). Similarly, the biomimetic building façade showed potential to reduce operational services energy consumption in all climate zones, with the greatest energy reductions achieved in the tropical (55.4% reduction) and humid continental climates (55.1% reduction). Through these results the hypothesis was confirmed suggesting that facades engineered to mimic biological functions and processes can improve substantially decrease building operational energy consumption and can be applied in different building classifications and different climate zones. These results would significantly decrease operational greenhouse gas emissions over the lifetime of a building and provide substantial savings in energy bills. Such facades can contribute to the further reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in a broad range of contexts in the built environment and other areas of technology and design. The flexibility and adaptability of biomimetic facades exemplify how biological strategies and characteristics can augment and improve performance in different environments, since the organisms that inspire innovation are already well-adapted to the conditions on earth. This study also exemplified a method by which other biomimetic building envelope features may be assessed. Further work is suggested to assess economic viability and constructability of the proposed facades.

In living organisms, forces are constantly generated and transmitted throughout tissue. Such forces are generated through interaction with the environment and as a result of the body's endogenous movement. If these internally or externally originating forces exceed the ability of tissues to cope with the applied forces, (i.e. "tissue thresholds"), they will cause force-related tissue harm. However, biotensegrity systems act to prevent these forces from causing structural damage to cells and tissues. The mechanism and structure of soft tissues that enable them to maintain their integrity and prevent damage under constantly changing forces is still not fully understood. The current anatomical and physical knowledge is insufficient to assess and predict how, why, where, and when to expect force-related tissue harm. When including the concept of tensegrity and the related principles of the hierarchical organisation of the elements of the subcellular tensional homeostatic structure into current biomechanical concepts, it increases our understanding of the events in force handling in relation to the onset of force-related tissue harm: Reducing incident forces in tissue to a level that is not harmful to the involved structures is achieved by dissipation, transduction and transferring the force in multiple dimensions. To enable this, the biomechanical systems must function in a continuous and consistent way from the cellular level to the entire body to prevent local peak forces from causing harm. In this article, we explore the biomechanical system with a focus on biotensegrity concepts across several organisational levels, describing in detail how it may function and reflecting on how this might be applied to patient management.

New approaches to complex societal challenges require a diverse mix of resources and skillsets from different disciplines to create solutions that are of a transdisciplinary innovation nature. The constructive research method enables the purposeful creation of methods, modules, tools, and techniques that have applicability well beyond the case study that motivated their creation. This research presents a bottom-up approach that follows a structured path to transdisciplinary innovation. A method is presented that demonstrates how a set of innovative research collaborations progress from disciplinary innovation to multidisciplinary innovation and ultimately onto interdisciplinary innovation. Anchored in overlapping computer science concepts, drawing on the constructive research methodology for purposeful synthesis and integration between the projects, a greater transdisciplinary goal can emerge. This method is demonstrated through a case study involving a set of big data analytics research projects involving diverse disciplines such as computer science, critical care medicine, aerospace, tactical operations, and public health. The resultant collective vision for transdisciplinary innovation that has resulted offers new approaches to maintaining individual wellness within communities across their entire lifespan on earth and in space.

This study was carried to understand socioeconomic factors affecting knowledge and adaption of climate change among farmers of Banke district, with the hope that knowledge about climate change and their adaption strategy can be targeted properly among farmers and their empowerment can be achieved. All the farmers from Bageshwori Village Development committee were the target population for this study. Ninety households were selected as sampling respondents for this study. The study showed that 42.22% of the respondents know about climate change. The study revealed that 35% of the respondents know about climate change through self-experiences by comparing the past and present events of climatic parameters. Local radio and social organization were the main source of their knowledge about climate change, covering share of 27% and 23% of the respondents’ means of knowledge. Age, gender and education of household head, contact to the extension workers, farming experience, presence of NGO/INGO and access to mass media found to be determinants of awareness of climate change with positive effect, except for household head age. Gender of household head, total annual income of family, farming experience, access to mass media, education of household head, farm size, presence of NGO/INGO and contact to extension workers were found to be determinants of climate change adoption. No decision is taken in vacuum, peoples’ surrounding, and experience surely affects. So, to move forward and achieve climate smart agriculture these socioeconomic factors should be accounted while planning and implementation of program, project or policies.

Summary Wheat was introduced to China approximately 4500 years ago, where it adapted over a span of time to various environments in agro‐ecological growing zones. We investigated 717 Chinese and 14 Iranian/Turkish geographically diverse, locally adapted wheat landraces with 27 933 DArTseq (for 717 landraces) and 312 831 Wheat660K (for a subset of 285 landraces) markers. This study highlights the adaptive evolutionary history of wheat cultivation in China. Environmental stresses and independent selection efforts have resulted in considerable genome‐wide divergence at the population level in Chinese wheat landraces. In total, 148 regions of the wheat genome show signs of selection in at least one geographic area. Our data show adaptive events across geographic areas, from the xeric northwest to the mesic south, along and among homoeologous chromosomes, with fewer variations in the D genome than in the A and B genomes. Multiple variations in interdependent functional genes such as regulatory and metabolic genes controlling germination and flowering time were characterized, showing clear allelic frequency changes corresponding to the dispersion of wheat in China. Population structure and selection data reveal that Chinese wheat spread from the northwestern Caspian Sea region to South China, adapting during its agricultural trajectory to increasingly mesic and warm climatic areas.

Background Using evidence-based interventions (EBIs) is a basic premise of contemporary social services (e.g., child and family social services). However, EBIs seldom fit seamlessly into a specific setting but often need to be adapted. Although some adaptions might be necessary, they can cause interventions to be less effective or even unsafe. The challenge of balancing adherence and adaptations when using EBIs is often referred to as the adherence and adaptation dilemma. Although the current literature identifies professionals’ management of this dilemma as problematic, it offers little practical guidance for professionals. This research aims to investigate how the adherence and adaptation dilemma is handled in social services and to explore how structured decision support can impact the management of the dilemma. Methods The design is a prospective, longitudinal intervention with a focus on the feasibility and usefulness of the structured decision support. The project is a collaboration between academic researchers, embedded researchers at three research and development units, and social service organizations. A multi-method data collection will be employed. Initially, a scoping review will be performed, and the results will be used in the development of a structured decision support. The decision support will be further developed and tested during a series of workshops with social service professionals. Different forms of data—focus group interviews, questionnaires, and documentation—will be used on several occasions to evaluate the impact of the structured decision support. Qualitative and quantitative analysis will be performed and usefulness for practice prioritized throughout the study. Discussion The study will contribute with knowledge on how the adherence and adaption dilemma is handled and experienced by social service professionals. Most importantly, the study will generate rich empirical data on how a structured decision support impacts professionals’ management of adherence and adaptions. The goal is to produce more strategic and context-sensitive implementation of EBIs in social service, which will increase value for service users.

In sunflower harvesting for decreasing the grain loss and increasing using efficiency of the combines GIS technologies, namely combines equipped with GPS devices and control sensors provides good results. This is explained that by the fact that with a length of 400-500 mm, the cut baskets did not partially fall on the divider-guide, and with a length of 700-800 mm, seed losses increased due to uncut baskets, since with an increase in length the divider-guide bent some stems forward and did not cut them. Analyzing the studies of working process of the adapted grain harvester combine Dominator-130 that equipped with GPS receiver and grain level indicator sensor in sunflower harvesting defined optimal parameters its header, as the following values: the length of the divider-guide (lТ) - 0.6 m, the gap between the divider-guides (ST) - 0.1 m, the installation angle of the divider-guide relative to the bottom of the header (βТ) - 5 degrees. With these parameters, the combine that has adapted header for harvesting sunflower meets the agro technical requirements for harvesting sunflower.

Wind power development, whilst welcomed by many as a potentially green source of energy, also gives rise to considerable local resistance. Drawing on three case studies from coastal Norway (Fr&oslash, ya, Harams&oslash, y, and Egersund), the present article sets out to reflect on life in anticipation of wind power development. Reflecting on the nature of life in anticipation of undesired wind power developments, with implications for how life is lived in dread of imminent adversities in general (such as climate change, pandemics, and disaster risks), these case studies focus on how communities relate to the future and how they perceive and strive to organise so as to shape outcomes. A central point raised in this article is that wind power projects could become more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable if greater attention is paid to working with communities to reduce distrust and uncertainties before, during and after such projects. Hence, relational work carried out that may shape the affective state of anticipation prior to and during wind farm construction can be understood as crucial to the sustainability of large-scale green infrastructure projects.

Drylands account for three-quarters of Sub-Saharan Africa's cropland, two-thirds of cereal production, and four-fifths of livestock holdings. Today frequent and severe shocks, especially droughts, limit the livelihood opportunities available to millions of households and undermine efforts to eradicate poverty in the drylands. Prospects for sustainable development of drylands are assessed in this book through the lens of resilience, understood here to mean the ability of people to withstand and respond to droughts and other shocks. An original model was developed expressly to consistently and coherently evaluate different type of interventions on the ground, which provided a common framework to anticipate the scale of the challenges likely to arise in drylands, as well as to generate insights into opportunities for addressing those challenges. Such modeling framework consisted in a) estimating the baseline vulnerability profiles of people living in drylands (2010), b) estimate the evolution of vulnerability by 2030 under a range of assumptions, c) calculated the number of people affectedby drought in the different administrative units of each country, and d) evaluate different types of interventions in agriculture and livestock for mitigating drought impact by calculating the potential for reducing the number of people affected for each scenario and conducting a simplified · benefit/cost (B/C) analysis for each type of intervention. For livestock, simulation models were used to estimate the impacts of feed balances, livestock production, and household income resilience interventions under different climate scenarios). For agriculture, the DSSAT (Decision Support System for·Agrotechnology Transfer) framework was used to assess the potential impact on yields likely to result from adoption of five crop farming technologies: (1) drought-tolerant varieties, (2) heat-tolerant varieties, (3) additional fertilizer, (4) agroforestry practices, (S) irrigation (6) water-harvesting techniques and selected combinations thereof.

Nowadays, postindustrial areas and buildings are becoming more and more valuable. Very popular are those with special historical and architectural values, which are additionally located in large cities. The situation of those possessing fewer attributes encouraging their adaptation is worse. Sometimes, however, there are reasons why a decision is made to invest in such buildings despite the many difficulties connected with the implementation of these investments. This situation was presented on the example of the renovation and adaptation of an old electric mill in Łaziec into a restaurant.

Background Individuals with chronic heart failure (CHF) need to cope with both the physical limitations and the psychological impacts of the disease. Since some coping strategies are beneficial and others are linked to increased mortality and worse health-related quality of life (HRQoL), it is important to have a reliable and valid instrument to detect different coping styles. Brief COPE, a self-reporting questionnaire, has been previously used in the context of CHF. There is, however, currently a lack of consensus about the theoretical or empirical foundations for grouping the multiple coping strategies assessed by Brief COPE into higher order categories of coping. The main purpose of this study was to examine the structure of Brief COPE, founded on the higher order grouping of its subscales in order to establish an assessment model supported by theoretical considerations. Furthermore, the associations between these higher order categories of coping and HRQoL were examined to establish the predictive validity of the selected model in the context of CHF. Method One hundred eighty-three patients diagnosed with CHF were recruited at a heart failure outpatient clinic or at a cardiac ward. Self-reported questionnaires were filled in to measure coping strategies and HRQoL. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed to investigate different hierarchical structures of Brief COPE found in the literature to assess coping strategies in patients with CHF. Regression analyses explored associations of aggregated coping strategies with HRQoL. Results A four factorial structure of Brief COPE displayed the most adequate psychometric properties, consisting of problem focused coping, avoidant coping, socially supported coping and emotion focused coping. Avoidant coping was associated with worse HRQoL in CHF. Conclusions This study provides support for a four-factor model of coping strategies in patients with CHF. This could facilitate assessment of coping both in clinical and research settings.

The collaborative relay network plays an important role in a smart grid application thanks to its high efficiency. However, energy and bandwidth management need to be further improved to extend network life cycle and reduce potential network segmentation. Aiming to balance the network energy consumption, this paper proposes an adaptive relay node selection algorithm based on the opportunity (OAR). In OAR, the potential relay nodes are chosen to act as candidates based on bit error rate (BER) estimation, and then, the relay is adaptively and opportunistically determined for packet forwarding. Residual energy is considered to avoid fast energy exhaustion for some certain nodes. The simulation results show that the proposed OAR algorithm improves the network performance by deferring the earliest death time of the nodes and extending the network life cycle.

The use of user models can be very valuable when trying to develop accessible and ergonomic products and services taking into account users' specific needs and preferences. Simulation of user---product interaction using user models may reveal accessibility issues at the early stages of design and development, and this results to a significant reduction in costs and development time. Moreover, user models can be used in adaptive interfaces enabling the personalised customisation of user interfaces that enhances the accessibility and usability of products and services. This paper presents the efforts of the Virtual User Modelling and Simulation Standardisation `VUMS' cluster of projects towards the development of an interoperable user model, able to describe both able-bodied and people with various kinds of disabilities. The VUMS cluster is consisted by the VERITAS, MyUI, GUIDE, and VICON FP7 European projects, all involved in user modelling from different perspectives. The main goal of the VUMS cluster was the development of a unified user model that could be used by all the participant projects and that could be the basis of a new user model standard. Currently, within the VUMS cluster, a common user model has been defined and converters that enable the transformation from each project's specific user model to the VUMS user model and vice versa have been developed enabling, thus, the exchange of user models between the projects.

Is it necessary or even possible to apply the management technology of open innovation to all projects in the same way? An analysis of the practices used in different product development projects in the same European medical company shows that commercially successful projects did apply many of the best practices for open innovation. However, projects were not equally successful. The outcome seems to be highly influenced by the type of collaborative arrangements used and their application. In particular, the analysis indicates that organizational factors seem to be indicative but not sufficient for success, and some open innovation practices were more successful than others. The most open and exploratory practices were not so successful in this company. This might be due to the nature of innovation, which develops in unpredictable and nonlinear ways. These observations suggest that those involved in open innovation need both a broad knowledge of the various potential elements of an open innovation effort and a flexible attitude toward their application. INSET: Summary of Projects.

International audience; In this paper, we provide an analysis of the deployment of labour market and career guidance as an instrument of liberal governmental rationality, and hence as a key tool for shaping attitudes suitable for the labour market. We characterize such processes and their effects on both those in receipt of guidance and those delivering it, on the basis of a three-year study in France, Slovenia, Spain and the UK. This leads us to put forward the problematic character of the notion of 'conduct of conduct', especially owing to the conflation implied between adaptation to governmental ends and freedom. We suggest that Max Weber's categories for depicting active adaptation in bureaucratic capitalism provide a more grounded grasp of the processes involved, and that the radical distinction he establishes between adaptation and the possibility of conduct may provide a new basis for conceptualizing resistance to liberal governmental rationality.

This paper discusses a novel approach to managing complexity in a large self-assembled system, by utilizing the self-assembling components themselves to address the complexity. A particular challenge is discussed namely the question of how to deal with elements that are assembled in different orientations from each other and a solution based on the idea of introspective circuitry is described. A methodology for using a set of cells to determine a nearby cell's orientation is given, leading to a slow (0(n)) means of orienting a 2D region of cells. A modified algorithm is then describe to allow parallel analysis of/adaption to dis-oriented cells, thus allowing re-orientation of an entire 2D region of cells with better-than-linear time performance (0(sort(n))). The significance of this work is discussed not only in terms of managing arrays of dis-oriented cells but also more importantly as an example of the usefulness of local, distributed self-configuration to create and use introspective circuitry. Cross-Disciplinary Semiconductor Research (CSR) Program award from Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) [G15173] This work was supported by the Cross-Disciplinary Semiconductor Research (CSR) Program award G15173 from the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC).

Background: The increasing number of elderly migrants in Europe poses challenges for the organisation of healthcare and social services if these migrants do not remigrate to their countries of birth at old age. More insight into perceptions of aging among migrant women is needed to inform service delivery for culturally and linguistic diverse populations, yet few studies have explored this field. The aim of this study is to explore perceptions of aging among middle-aged migrant women, with emphasis on identifying factors shaping their decisions on whether to remigrate or stay in Denmark during old age. Methods: The study is based on 14 semi-structured interviews including a total of 29 migrant women residing in Copenhagen, Denmark. The women were born in Somalia, Turkey, India, Iran, Pakistan, or Middle Eastern countries. The majority of participants were middle-aged and had one or more chronic illnesses. The analysis was inspired by phenomenological methods and guided by theory on access to services, social relations, and belonging. Results: The results showed that the existence of chronic conditions requiring frequent use of medical care and the availability of high-quality healthcare in Denmark were important factors for the decision to spend one’s old age in Denmark rather than to remigrate to one’s country of origin. Similarly, availability of social services providing financial and tangible support for the elderly was perceived to be important during old age. For these middle-aged women, social ties to children and grandchildren in Denmark and feelings of belonging further nourished a wish to stay in Denmark rather than remigrating. Conclusions: Since the study suggests that elderly migrants will be utilising healthcare and social services in Denmark rather than returning to their countries of birth, these services should prepare for increased cultural and linguistic diversity among users. This could entail provision of translators, specific outreach programmes, and culturally adapted services to meet elderly from diverse linguistic, religious, and cultural backgrounds.

Vietnam is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly in poor coastal communities. While external climate change projects have been conducted in some coastal provinces, including Ha Tinh, there is a lack of local education programs to enhance communities’ awareness and adaptive capacity to cope with climate change. Therefore, a community education program is proposed to help Ha Tinh locals adapt to climate change. The aim of this paper is to present a brief literature review, including: identifying key concepts, overviewing global climate change, analysing climate change and climate change adaptation in Vietnam, as well as theoretical frameworks.

Livestock production is the most important component of northern European agriculture and contributes to and will be affected by climate change. Nevertheless, the role of farm animal genetic resources in the adaptation to new agro-ecological conditions and mitigation of animal production’s effects on climate change has been inadequately discussed despite there being several important associations between animal genetic resources and climate change issues. The sustainability of animal production systems and future food security require access to a wide diversity of animal genetic resources. There are several genetic questions that should be considered in strategies promoting adaptation to climate change and mitigation of environmental effects of livestock production. For example, it may become important to choose among breeds and even among farm animal species according to their suitability to a future with altered production systems. Some animals with useful phenotypes and genotypes may be more useful than others in the changing environment. Robust animal breeds with the potential to adapt to new agro-ecological conditions and tolerate new diseases will be needed. The key issue in mitigation of harmful greenhouse gas effects induced by livestock production is the reduction of methane (CH4) emissions from ruminants. There are differences in CH4 emissions among breeds and among individual animals within breeds that suggest a potential for improvement in the trait through genetic selection. Characterization of breeds and individuals with modern genomic tools should be applied to identify breeds that have genetically adapted to marginal conditions and to get critical information for breeding and conservation programs for farm animal genetic resources. We conclude that phenotyping and genomic technologies and adoption of new breeding approaches, such as genomic selection introgression, will promote breeding for useful characters in livestock species.

While climate change policies and negotiations are developing and scientist are urging for more action, in most countries progress remains on a low level and the macro figures indicate that climate change becomes even more critical. As a reaction to this, some advanced business leaders have initiated various actions and projects with their companies, and various regulations have been introduced by governments with varying levels of effectiveness. In this context of a mix of international initiatives, media attention, customer irritation, diverse regulatory changes and partial political lethargy, ever more companies are challenged to identify and reduce their exposure to climate change issues. Whereas the reduction of climate change emissions is an important topic, it has also become obvious that climate change is not just a future risk but is already happening. This invokes adaptation activities in addition to mitigation strategies and measures. A basic requirement to design the corporate climate strategy is the knowledge about the company’s exposure as well as about options, effects and costs of emission reductions and adaptation measures. This is where climate change accounting as a specific kind of environmental management accounting comes into play. This introductory section outlines core questions and approaches.

International audience; This paper introduces Context-BPMN4V, an extension of BPMN for modeling variability of processes using versions and also considering their contextual dimension. More precisely, it shows how we extend BPMN meta-models to support version modeling to deal with process adaptation, along with context modeling to characterize the situations in which instances of processes are executed. Because of space limitation, this paper only focuses on intra-organizational processes.

Book Review: Preparing for Climate change "Climate change is inevitable, but disaster is not."

This essay is an investigation into the use of the fable genre in a Danish children’s magazine, Avis for Børn (Journal for the children), published in Copenhagen 1779–1782 by the philanthropist and editor Emanuel Balling. The main purpose is to indicate that the classical, Aesopian genre to some extent was transformed and adapted to fi t into the didactic and religious purpose dominating this journal. Some examples from the old lore are given to substantiate the assumption that the attitude of the fable mainly was a very pragmatic one, without the moral and religious orientation typical of the stories presented in Avis for Børn. In nature, Avis for Børn would admire the reign of a benevolent God, while in ancient fable nature is a place reigned by brutes and by arbitrary bestiality. Nevertheless, the journal chose to make some meaningful, yet strained use of the genre, without twisting the genre into pastoral sentimentality, a tendency that during the 19th century in children’s literature became predominant. Keywords: Fable, adaption, enlightenment, journals for children, philantrophy, moral education, pragmatic didacticism, benevolent nature (Published: 3 March 2011) Citation: Nordic Journal of ChildLit Aesthetics, Vol. 2, 2011 DOI: 10.3402/ blft.v2i0.5830 Note: This article is being published simultaneously in Barnboken – tidskrift för barnlitteraturforskning/Journal of Children’s Literature Research and Nordic ChildLit Aesthetics/Barnelitterært forskningstidsskrift

[EN] BCIs provide a channel for sending commands to the external environment by using electrophysiological measurements recording brain activity. The algorithm transforming the input signal into the output commands and the method used to extract the signal features for the algorithm are the key components for an optimum behaviour of the BCI. This paper presents a machine learning- based method to select these features and a classifier algorithm for building a predictive model from the EEg signal of patients with tremor. This model analyses and classifies the signal in a continous, asynchronous and adaptive way finding to identify the patient movement intention in order for a control system to cancel the tremor during the movement execution., [ES] Las Interfaces Cerebro-Computador proporcionan un canal para enviar órdenes al mundo exterior haciendo uso de medidas electrofisiológicas de la actividad cerebral. En este artículo se presenta la combinación de un método de selección de características y un algoritmo de clasificación probabilístico para construir el modelo predictivo de la intención anticipada de movimiento voluntario de pacientes con temblor a partir de un solo ensayo. Los resultados obtenidos muestran una potencial de discriminación del 70%, una tasa de error aceptable (6.6%) y una rápida respuesta (cada 250 ms), lo que indica que esta combinación es una buena base para la construcción de ICCs que no requieran entrenamiento del usuario de forma personalizada, asíncrona y adaptativa., Este trabajo ha sido realizado con la financiación de la Comisión de la Unión Europea dentro del 7 Programa Marco, para el proyecto con referencia ICT-2007-224051: “TREMOR: An ambulatory BCI-driven tremor suppression system based on functional electrical stimulation” y por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, con el proyecto IMAGENeuroMAPS (TEC2006-13966-C03-03) “Integración de resonancia magnética y electroencefalografía. Aplicación al fundamento y uso de ICCs por discapacitados”.

AIM: This phenomenological study aimed to explore the experience of occupational adaptation from the perspective of persons with acquired brain injury living in a rural area. METHOD: Two male participants aged 30 and 45 years were interviewed using a semistructured interview format. Colaizzi's approach was used for analysis. RESULTS: Data analysis revealed three main themes: 'Things are different now', 'Acceptance' and 'Just another chapter'. CONCLUSIONS: After initially coming to terms with having a brain injury and accepting the new person the self had become, adaptation through engaging in occupation was experienced by the participants. An understanding of strategies that participants used in the adaptation process is of use to occupational therapists in order to design meaningful occupational interventions. Language: en

This paper discusses aspects related to the implementation of Design for All in ICT from a developer oriented perspective. In order to illustrate and exemplify the concepts, the discussion refers to characteristics implemented in the web site of the Italian EDeAN network. The paper proposes adaptation capable platforms as a possible organic solution for instantiating Design for All principles. It presents a modular platform that makes it possible to build services of various types, with focus on its adaptation framework. The platform is inspired by Design for All principles in that it is intended to give support, from the design time on, to a wide range of mobile and wired communication devices, a variety of user characteristics, preferences, and contexts.

Extant research on the implementation of health information systems (HIS) provides guidance on how to implement future HIS and little guidance on how to steer a current HIS implementation towards specified outcomes. We contribute to this gap by providing theoretical clarity on stakeholder responses to change brought about by HIS implementation, and how such responses may impact HIS implementation outcomes. Building on Heeks' view [27] that stakeholders engage in improvisation to bridge design-reality gaps during HIS implementation, we elaborate on improvisation, and distinguish it from adaptation. We then establish the link between improvisation and HIS implementation outcomes by adopting Vera's revised model [44] to propose that improvisation will have a positive impact on HIS implementation outcomes when stakeholders have higher levels of expertise and teamwork skills, and where the healthcare institution adopts an experimental culture characterized by higher levels of real-time information & communication. There is however a need to balance the effects of organizational memory. A key limitation in our present contribution is its theoretical nature.

In Ad Hoc networks,the net work of mobile nodes exchange information with their wireless transceiver equipment,the network throughput is in increased,compared to other such multiple hops network.Moreover along with the rapid development of modern information,communication business also will be increase.However,the access and adaptive of previous CSMA protocol are insufficient.According to these properties,this paper presents a kind of adaptive dual clock with monitoring function P-CSMA random multiple access protocol(ADNP-CSMA),and discusses two kinds of P-CSMA.ACK with monitoring function is introduced to maintain the stability of the whole system,and the introduction of dual clock mechanism reduces the channel of idle period.It calculate the system throughput expression through the method of average period,and the simulation results show that the system is constant in the case of high load throughput.

The study assessed yam mini–sett technology adoption performance and determinants among yam farmers in Egbeda LGA of Oyo state, Nigeria. Data were collected from 136 yam producers and analysed using descriptive and logistic regression statistics. Results show that all respondents were aware of the yam mini–sett technique but only 43.4 % have adopted the practice. About 36% have discontinued the use of the technique while 20.6% have never tried it before. The poor adoption frequency was due to non–availability of farm chemicals (mean = 2.86), long duration required to produce the mini–sett (mean = 3.41), perceived irrelevance of the technology (x = 2.77) and rottening of the sett (mean = 2.57). Important determinants of farmers' use of the technology were age with an odd ratio of 1.28, education (1.55), gender (1.35) and contact with extension workers (1.68). The study recommends farm chemical provision to prevent tuber rottening and training of farmers on the importance of the production technique. Keywords : yam mini-sett, technology, adaption, Oyo State, Nigeria International Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development Vol. 6 2005: 12-18

The emerging cognitive vision paradigm deals with vision systems that apply machine learning and automatic reasoning in order to learn from what they perceive. Cognitive vision systems can rate the relevance and consistency of newly acquired knowledge, they can adapt to their environment and thus will exhibit high robustness. This contribution presents vision systems that aim at flexibility and robustness. One is tailored for content-based image retrieval, the others are cognitive vision systems that constitute prototypes of visual active memories which evaluate, gather, and integrate contextual knowledge for visual analysis. All three systems are designed to interact with human users. After we will have discussed adaptive content-based image retrieval and object and action recognition in an office environment, the issue of assessing cognitive systems will be raised. Experiences from psychologically evaluated human-machine interactions will be reported and the promising potential of psychologically-based usability experiments will be stressed.

This research article covers the broader issues of climate-related migration and provides a legal analysis of climate migration. Although much of the discussion around climate change has focused on how its effects can be reduced, it is now generally accepted that climate change will have widespread impacts and that people must be ready to adapt to those impacts. One of the ways people are likely to adapt is by migrating, and in spite of the fact that this has become one of the most widely discussed areas of adaptation, there is, as yet, no solid grasp of its potential scope. Predictions range from 200 or 250 million to possibly a billion people moving by the middle of the 21st century to escape climate change impacts such as sea level rise, drought and desertification, and greater frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Regions expected to produce the most climate migrants include Africa, heavily populated Asian mega delta areas, and small island nations. People may also move from Mexico to the United States as a result of climate change (Feng). Climate change is expected to cause widespread displacement among human populations, and several proposals have been put forward as possible responses to this problem. The paper critically analyses (i) the issue of climate migration; (ii) provides an analysis of the existing law in climate migration and (iii) presents proposals to amend the existing law in climate migration.

In this study, the concept of Learning by Research and Development (R&D) is furthered to the world of more resilient learning in the setting of security related R&D projects for development of co-creative products, services and action competence. The background of this study includes an interdisciplinary combination of service science, security, computer science, pedagogy, engineering, and management science. The interdisciplinary combination involves researchers, learners, teachers, and other participants connecting and integrating the academic disciplines, professions, and technologies, along with their methods and perspectives for co-creation of a common goal. This goal emphasizes results as high-value impacts, as well as the value of products, services, and innovations as “deliverables” of the integrative learning process. Until recently, the Learning by R&D model is clear and transparent; as such, it can be adopted by learning and R&D integration of other sciences and higher education institutions. The structure of the model is also easy to adapt and renew in case of a change, which means that it can develop from the inside on the one hand, and produce interactions, adaptions, resilience and innovations on the other.