A future sustainable society need to rely more on renewable energy sources. One of the most promising alternatives is solar power. However, there are inherent fluctuations accompanied with solar power, for example if the shadow of a cloud blocks the sun light on a whole solar cell it will not produce any power. This will cause problems with connecting the solar panels to the power grid. Clear sky index (CSI) is a measurement of how much of the sky that is covered by clouds, and is a key parameter for planning of large scale solar panels. This report describes the manufacturing and programming of a cheap device for calculating the so called clear sky index (CSI) over a large portion of the sky. The device contains a Raspberry PI computer with a camera module, and utilize a program that through the computer-vision library OpenCV can calculate the CSI of the images provided by the camera. The resulting prototype costs about 800 SEK, and has possibility to be improved by adding a fish-eye lens to cover a bigger area, or to be water resistant by improving the casing, without exceeding a 1000 SEK price tag.

We have designed and fabricated a biomicroviscometer platform for measurement of microflows of biological fluids. The biomicroviscometer combines an optically clear biocompatible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) channel with on-chip integrated microfluidic differential pressure sensors and capabilities of modular channel geometries. This setup allows for a direct measurement of the change in pressure and flow rate, increasing the overall accuracy of the measurement of viscosity and optical observation. We present an introduction of this combined method of measurement with different channel dimensions, using Newtonian and non Newtonian fluids, and the corresponding calculations. This measurement technique has potential applications in measuring rheological properties at the micro level to further blood disease analysis, and lab-on-a-chip fabrication and analysis.

A common recommendation for communication partners of people with hearing loss is to speak clearly, but how effective is this simple instruction? Does everyone produce clear speech using the same strategies? Is clear speech produced when given minimal instruction the same as that produced when competing background noise is present? The present study examined the acoustic characteristics of passage level speech produced in four different conditions. Twelve talkers (8 female, 4 male) with a mean age of 21 years were audio recorded reading three paragraph length passages. In the first condition talkers read each passage conversationally as though speaking to a friend. In the three experimental conditions, talkers were instructed to speak as clearly as they could, speak as clearly as they could in the presence of multitalker babble, and speak as clearly as they could in the presence of speech-shaped noise. The babble and noise were presented over headphones at a level of 75 dB SPL. Acoustic measures examined changes in rate, frequency, and intensity across condition. Results of this study help clarify what changes talkers make in response to instructions to speak clearly compared to conditions with competing background noise.

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Forestry is an important industry in Sweden, with clear-cut as the most commonly used method for harvesting. Here the long-term impact of clear-cut on lake water quality (dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrogen, phosphorus and pH) has been investigated, based on 23 lakes sampled during autumn. Data for additional 15 lakes sampled for the Swedish monitoring program were also used. Lakes were classified as 5, 25, 40 and 60 year based on data of the forest age in the catchment, gathered from the Swedish national forest inventory. Clear-cut lakes were classified as 5 years (>20% of the catchment clear-cut during the last 10 years). The results showed that DOC and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations decreased with increasing age of the forests. In clear-cut lakes (5 year) average DOC- (20.5 mg/L) and TN concentrations (477 µg/L) were higher than the average concentration in lakes with older forests (25, 40 and 60 year) (i.e. DOC 13.5 mg/L and TN 351 µg/L). Also the quality of DOC were changing (measured as changes in absorbance at 254) with forest age, with more bioavailable (low molecular weight) DOC in clear-cut lakes. A greater clear-cut area compared to the catchment area did not significantly result in higher concentrations of DOC and TN in clear-cut lakes. In conclusion, the concentration of TN, and the concentration and quality of DOC, in small boreal lakes are affected by clear-cutting and are changing with the age of the forest stand. Thus, highest concentrations and more bioavailable carbon compounds are found in clear-cut lakes where forests recently has been removed (<10 year).

Health literacy is demonstrated when individuals can obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Veteran health literacy is believed to be lower than the general population due to the aging and culturally diverse population. Veterans require adequate health literacy to manage their diverse high acuity physical injuries, psychological conditions, and chronic diseases. Clear communication between the clinician and veteran patient is essential to provide high quality health services. The objective of this quality-improvement project was to evaluate the ability of nurses in the ambulatory environment to identify low health literacy patients and to deliver an educational intervention focused on health literacy awareness and communication strategies. A pre-intervention Clear Communications Questionnaire (CCQ), a validated instrument, was delivered to 299 ambulatory nurses with a 20% response rate. The results from this questionnaire informed the development of a 40-minute educational program, multimedia and discussion format, provided to 200 nurses. Following the education program, the post-intervention CCQ was sent to the nurses, with a 30% response rate. Survey Monkey was utilized to collect the CCQ data and Minitab for the statistical analysis, including a pre- and post-intervention data analysis with a t test. While this project was unable to show a significant difference between the pre- and post-intervention CCQ, the individual survey items indicated increased awareness about the importance of health literacy and the ability to locate patient health literacy level in the medical record. Further work needs to be undertaken to assure veteran patients can actively engage in clear communication with clinicians, discern between treatment options, adhere to treatment recommendations, and develop health-seeking behaviors across their lifespans.

This study investigated the extent to which noise impacts speech processing of sentences that vary in intelligibility for normal-hearing young adults. Intelligibility and recognition memory in noise were examined for conversational and clear speech sentences recorded in quiet (QS) and in response to the environmental noise, i.e. noise adapted speech (NAS). Results showed that 1) increased intelligibility through conversational-to-clear speech modifications lead to improved recognition memory and 2) NAS presented a more naturalistic speech adaptation to noise compared to QS, leading to more accurate word recognition and better sentence recall. These results demonstrate that acoustic-phonetic modifications implemented in listener-oriented speech enhance speech processing beyond word recognition. The results are in line with the effortfulness hypothesis (McCoy et al., 2005), which states that speech perception in challenging listening environments requires additional processing resources that might otherwise be available for encoding speech in memory. This resource reallocation may be offset by speaking style adaptations on the part of the talker. In addition to enhanced intelligibility, a substantial improvement in recognition memory can be achieved through speaker adaptations to the environment and to the listener when in adverse conditions. / text

Older adults often experience hearing loss in one or both ears, and as a result, many participate in aural rehabilitation programs. Often these programs incorporate communication partners and train them to use compensatory strategies. One common compensatory strategy cited is encouraging communication partners to speak more clearly to their loved one with hearing loss. Clear speech often encompass several different strategies such as speaking slower, louder, or over articulating. However, it is unclear what acoustic changes talkers employ when cued to speak in these different ways. The present study evaluated the effect of different cues (i.e., control (habitual), clear, slow, loud, and over articulate) and speaking tasks (oral reading versus monologue) on the acoustic characteristics of speech produced by eight older adults with hearing in the normal range. All speech was recorded in a sound treated booth and analyzed acoustically along six dimensions: articulation rate, percent change in fundamental frequency from control, change in sound pressure level from control, voice range density area, vowel space density area, and cepstral peak prominence. Results revealed statistically significant acoustic changes between conditions for all six acoustic measures. There was also significant effect of task for three acoustic measures. Findings show both group trends as well as individual talker variability. Further research is needed to determine how the acoustic changes associated with different instructional cues negatively or positively impact listeners with hearing loss.

The newly emerging Clarity™ Clear Aligner System from 3M has set out to address one of the biggest pitfalls of thermoplastic aligners: accuracy of orthodontic movements. The 3M Clarity™ Clear Aligner System is unique among clear aligners because it employs a proprietary, sophisticated machine-learning algorithm to design orthodontic movement schematics. The core of the Clarity™ Aligner System is artificial intelligence, meaning that a prospective analysis of preliminary data is essential for the development and improvement of the accuracy of the algorithm. This study investigates movement and accuracy of the Clarity™ Aligner System, from a preliminary data subset from ongoing prospective, randomized clinical trials. Movement from the first trial subset is examined in terms of the following movement factors: secondary premolar-secondary premolar (5+5 in the Palmer system) arch expansion or crowding resolved, absolute rotation, absolute mesial-distal tipping, and absolute torque for both the crown and root. These movements are further examined according to specific tooth types. Both actual observational orthodontic movements and theoretical movements are designed by the Clarity™ System. The accuracy of actual movement in terms of theoretical movements is calculated; however, it is impossible to calculate the significance of these accuracies due to a complete lack of benchmark movement values for the clear aligner market. There are no benchmark values to compare to, so orthodontic movements will be critically examined for performance, and casually compared to alternative aligner systems. Identifying potential weaknesses in the Clarity™ Aligner System is imperative for maximizing its effectiveness.

Oncocytomas are uncommon tumors of the salivary gland. They have an abundance of mitochondria, which is manifested as granular eosinophilic cytoplasm by light microscopy. On histological sections, presence of cytoplasmic glycogen and/or fixation artifact can impart cytoplasmic clearing, and oncocytomas with a predominance of clear cytoplasm are labeled clear cell oncocytomas. Two forms of oncocytoma, eosinophilic and clear cell, have been described in the surgical pathology literature. The purpose of this manuscript is to conduct a comparative cytological assessment to ascertain parallels and differences between the two variants.