No description available.

The need and demand for propulsion devices on nanosatellites has grown over the last decade due to interest in expanding nanosatellite mission abilities, such as attitude control, station-keeping, and collision avoidance. One potential micro-propulsion device suitable for nanosatellites is an electrothermal plasma thruster called Pocket Rocket. Pocket Rocket is a low-power, low-cost propulsion platform specifically designed for use in nanosatellites such as CubeSats. Due to difficulties associated with integrating propulsion devices onto spacecraft such as volume constraints and heat dissipation limitations, a characterization of the heat generation and heat transfer properties of Pocket Rocket is necessary. Several heat-transfer models of Pocket Rocket were considered as a part of this analysis to determine viability and complexity of the analysis, including a lumped thermal model, a finite-element model written in MATLAB, and a finite-volume model constructed using ANSYS Fluent and environmental conditions to closely reflect the experimental environment, both steady-state and transient. Results were validated experimentally. A Pocket Rocket thruster was manufactured for this purpose, and data regressed against model predictions to compare the validity of predicted models. Thermal models compared favorably to experimental measurements, accurately predicting the temperatures obtained at the surface of the thruster within 10 Kelvin after 1.5 hours of operation as well as the temporally-dependent temperature increases during the duration of operation within a standard error of ±6 Kelvin. Mission and integration viability is found to be favorable and within the realm of practicality for use of Pocket Rocket on nanosatellites.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF RESEARCH: Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was setup to secure universal access to affordable quality care. However, after 11yrs, and despite launching different programs, NHIS coverage is still less than 3% nationally, and out-of-pocket payments (OOP) remain the major health financing mechanism. The reasons for the low level of enrollment in NHIS are not well understood. Quality of care may be a factor in enrolment. This study compares technical and perceived quality of care between NHIS enrollees and the uninsured, using diabetes as a tracer condition. It also compares OOP and generic prescription patterns by health insurance enrollment status. METHODS: We conducted a cross sectional clinic-based intercept study. Subjects were adult diabetes patients recruited from 10 NHIS accredited hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria. Data collection included survey and chart review, covering technical aspects of quality – performance of eye and feet exam and HbA1c request; perception of quality, generic medication prescribing pattern and OOP. We performed logistic regression analysis to evaluate the effect of NHIS enrollment status on the technical quality of care, perceived quality of care, generic prescribing and OOP. RESULTS: Out of 455 participants, 149 (33%) were NHIS enrollees, 10 (2%) were enrolled in private health insurance and 296 (65%) had no insurance. After adjusting for correlated data and controlling for facility, BMI, chronic disease score, age, sex, and education, patients under NHIS coverage were 0.85 times less likely to have eye exam (Cl=0.4–1.8), 0.98 times less likely to have feet exam (Cl= 0.4–2.2), and 0.98 times less likely to have A1c test requested (Cl= 0.7–1.3), compared to those without insurance. These findings were not statistically significant at alpha=0.05. On the other hand, compared to the uninsured, NHIS covered patients perceived care to be worse even though they spent significantly less, 56% (Cl=45%–69%) in OOP in public hospitals. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Perception of care quality under the NHIS could be a contributory factor to the reluctance of prospective enrollees. To advance towards the goal of universal health coverage, NHIS must strengthen policy to overcome identified barriers such as medication stock outs and wait times at the facility level.

Anhydrous ammonia (NH3) was tested as a potential replacement for residual, non specific toxicants as an effective control agent. It was postulated that NH3 would effectively control northern pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides) and also act as a fertilizer for rangeland vegetation. Compound 1080 was selected as a standard for comparison of gopher control efficiency. Over 700 burrow systems were treated or monitored. Results showed compound 1080 to be 81 percent and NH3 45 percent efficient in controlling gophers. Although fertilizing effects of NH3 were positive, the low control efficiency and high application costs make NH3 an unlikely replacement for the now restricted residual toxicants.

Wireless communication provides an effective means by which mobile robots can be operated, field tested, and trained remotely. This thesis explores a design that is intended to simplify the process of creating communication software for these and other similar purposes. The proposed software is responsible for generating client-server modules that are able to be readily loaded into any number of wirelessly connected mobile robots and handheld devices. In general, the system is designed to be low-cost, simple to use, and robust, with particular design considerations for software portability and modularity. Portability is obtained by using the Java™ platform and modularity is obtained by incorporating object-oriented design. The test platform for this system is comprised of a Palm OS® handheld device, a Linux-based mobile robot, and a wireless Ethernet connection.

The advance on areas to the technology has proportionate new forms to create and to store given. Daily, the organizations accumulate given on diverse processes, e many of these, they are worked the field in the format of spread sheets, questionnaires and other ways of survey, restricted the simple notes. With the sprouting of computational devices with reduced dimensions, known as PDA (Personal digital assistants) or Pocket PC, associates to a new paradigm, mobility. The work to follow, it will go to show to the possibility of use of mobile computational systems in the simplification of collection processes and data processing the field, detailing three systems in distinct areas, that they use technology GPS (Global Position System) with connection without wire Bluetooth making possible the geoprocessing of the databases. The areas chosen in question and its respective systems had been the precision farming, Urban Registry and the farm management. / O avanço das áreas ligadas à tecnologia tem proporcionado novas formas de criar e armazenar dados. Diariamente, as organizações acumulam dados sobre diversos processos, e muitos destes são trabalhados a campo no formato de planilhas, questionários e outros meios de levantamento, restritos a simples apontamentos. Com o surgimento de dispositivos computacionais com dimensões reduzidas, conhecidos como PDA (Personal digital assistants) ou Pocket PC, associados a um novo paradigma, a mobilidade, o trabalho a seguir irá mostrar a possibilidade de utilização de sistemas computacionais móveis na simplificação de processos de coleta e processamento de dados a campo, detalhando três sistemas em áreas distintas, que utilizam tecnologia GPS com conexão sem fio Bluetooth, que possibilita o geoprocessamento das bases de dados. As áreas escolhidas em questão e seus respectivos sistemas foram a agricultura de precisão, cadastro urbano e a gestão rural.

Les interfaces de saisie et de reconnaissance automatique d'écriture manuscrite sur Pocket PC, bien que témoignant de performances théoriques élevées (McKenzie, 2002), ne sont pourtant pas jugés utilisables, et donc, acceptables, par leurs utilisateurs qui leur préfèrent le clavier virtuel (Ortelli, 2003, Költringer & Grechenig, 2004). Notre travail vise à comprendre ce problème d'acceptabilité, et s'articule autour de deux axes. Le premier consiste à améliorer la machine (ergonomie) tandis que le second consiste à comprendre l'utilisateur (efficience mentale et attitudes). Nous proposons tout d'abord une série de deux expériences et un test utilisateur dont le but est d'améliorer l'ergonomie d'une interface de saisie et de reconnaissance d'écriture manuscrite (DIGIME, développée en partenariat avec l'IRISA, Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes aléatoires), et ce afin d'en améliorer l'utilisabilité. Pour ce faire, nous mettons à contribution les modèles de la charge cognitive (Sweller, 1991), du format de présentation des illustrations (Mayer, 2001), ainsi que des critères ergonomiques (Bastien & Scapin, 2001). Les améliorations obtenues au niveau de l'ergonomie (expé 1) et du didacticiel (expé 2) ne s'avèrent pas suffisantes pour concurrencer les méthodes de saisies alternatives (expé 3). Par conséquent, dans un second temps, nous mettons en place trois autres expériences (dont un test de perception) qui tentent de mettre en relation processus rédactionnels, charge mentale (Kellogg, 1996) et acceptabilité (Davis, 1989). Les résultats montrent que s'il est vain de prendre en compte les avis des participants sans leur performance (expé 4), l'efficience mentale de l'écriture ne permet pas d'envisager de prévoir l'acceptabilité de DIGIME, de même que tout autre jugement porté sur cette interface (expé 5 et 5 bis). Ce cycle itératif de conception nous permet néanmoins de conclure que le défaut d'utilisabilité des logiciels de reconnaissance d'écriture est dû à un problème d'apprenabilité. L'acceptabilité s'en ressent, principalement du fait de la concurrence des claviers virtuels dont le fonctionnement, calqué sur les claviers matériels, est connu du plus grand nombre

Over the past 50 years, several advancements have been made in the research area of the mechanics of unsaturated soils. These advancements can be categorized into two groups; (i) development (or improvement) of testing techniques (or apparatus) to determine the mechanical properties of unsaturated soils and (ii) development of (numerical, empirical or semi-empirical) models to estimate the variation of mechanical properties of unsaturated soils with respect to suction based on the experimental results. Implementation of the mechanics of unsaturated soils in conventional geotechnical engineering practice, however, has been rather limited. The key reasons for the limited practical applications may be attributed to the lack of simple and reliable methods for (i) measuring soil suction in the field quickly and reliably and (ii) estimating the variation of mechanical properties of unsaturated soils with respect to suction. The main objective of this thesis research is to develop simple and reliable techniques, models or approaches that can be used in geotechnical engineering practice to estimate sol suction and the mechanical properties of unsaturated soils. This research can be categorized into three parts. In the First Part, simple techniques are proposed to estimate the suction values of as-compacted unsaturated fine-grained soils using a pocket penetrometer and a conventional tensiometer. The suction values less than 300 kPa can be estimated using a strong relationship between the compressive strength measured using a pocket penetrometer and matric suction value. The high suction values in the range of 1,200 kPa to 60,000 kPa can be estimated using the unique relationship between the initial tangent of conventional tensiometer response versus time behavior and suction value. In the Second Part, approaches or semi-empirical models are proposed to estimate the variation of mechanical properties of unsaturated soils with respect to suction, which include: - Bearing capacity of unsaturated fine-grained soils - Variation of bearing capacity of unsaturated fine-grained soils with respect to matric suction - Variation of initial tangent elastic modulus of unsaturated soils below shallow foundations with respect to matric suction - Variation of maximum shear modulus with respect to matric suction for unsaturated non-plastic sandy soils (i.e. plasticity index, Ip = 0 %) In the Third Part, approaches (or methodologies) are suggested to simulate the vertically applied stress versus surface settlement behavior of shallow foundations in unsaturated coarse-grained soils assuming elastic-perfectly plastic behavior. These methodologies are extended to simulate the stress versus settlement behavior of both model footings and in-situ plates in unsaturated coarse-grained soils. The results show that there is a reasonably good comparison between the measured values (i.e. soil suction, bearing capacity, elastic and shear modulus) and those estimated using the techniques or models proposed in this thesis research. The models (or methodologies) proposed in this thesis research are promising and encouraging for modeling studies and practicing engineers to estimate the variation of mechanical behavior of unsaturated soils with respect to matric suction.

A periodontite agressiva (PA) é uma doença que acomete uma população mais jovem, com aspectos clínicos e radiográficos característicos. Possui 2 formas de apresentação: localizada (PAL) e generalizada (PAG) que apresentam padrões distintos. É uma doença que pode provocar perdas dentárias precocemente, levando ao comprometimento estético, funcional e social. É fundamental que se estabeleça um programa adequado de manutenção periodontal (MP) após o tratamento, para impedir ou retardar a progressão da doença. Os objetivos desse estudo foram avaliar os parâmetros clínicos periodontais: profundidade clínica de sondagem (PCS), nível clínico de inserção (NCI), sangramento à sondagem (SS), mobilidade e perda dentária, de 39 pacientes, por um período de 5 anos (realizando as avaliações no início, 1 ano, 3 anos e 5 anos após a conclusão do tratamento ativo, que consistiu de tratamento mecânico - raspagem e alisamento radicular - orientação de higiene bucal e antibioticoterapia - metronidazol e amoxicilina). As consultas de MP foram feitas trimestralmente durante os 5 anos. Como conclusão verificou-se uma melhora dos parâmetros clínicos periodontais em ambos os grupos, bem como, uma pequena quantidade de dentes extraídos por motivos periodontais (5%), mostrando a efetividade do tratamento e das consultas de MP. / Aggressive periodontitis (AP) is a disease that affects a younger people, with typical clinical and radiographic aspects. It has 2 forms of presentation: localized (LAP) and generalized (GAP) which have different patterns. It is a disease which can cause early tooth loss, induce to aesthetic, functional and social impairment. It is decisive that an appropriate periodontal maintenance (PM) program be established after treatment to prevent or delay the progression of the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the periodontal clinical parameters: probing of depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), bleeding on probing (BoP), mobility, tooth loss, of 39 patients, for a period of 5 years ( performing evaluation on baseline, 1 year, 3 years and 5 years after the end of the active treatment, which consisted of mechanical treatment - scaling and root planning - oral hygiene orientation and antibiotic therapy - metronidazole and amoxicillin). PM appointments were made quarterly during the 5 years. As conclusion, there was an improvement in periodontal clinical parameters in both groups, as well as, a small quantity of teeth extracted by periodontal causes (5%), showing the effectiveness of the treatment and the PM appointments.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans une volonté de comprendre le cinéma mobile, fait avec un dispositif mobile, dans le paysage contemporain de la « culture mobile », entendue comme l’ensemble des usages sociaux associés aux appareils mobiles connectés à l’internet produisant et exploitant des textes et des images, l’organisation en réseaux, etc. Nous l’analysons en tant que phénomène artistique mais aussi comportemental et social, à travers les usages et les enjeux qui lui sont associés, en particulier ceux liés à l’innovation. Nous avons pour cela réalisé une série d’entretiens avec des professionnels en lien avec le cinéma de poche. Le cinéma de poche apparaît comme un mode d’expression cinématographique accessible à tout individu muni d’un dispositif mobile. Ce cinéma a bénéficié de nouveaux moyens de diffusion via Internet et s’est intégré à une tendance contemporaine de l’économie créative. Nous analysons la diffusion des films de poche sur les plateformes de vidéos sur le web et dans les festivals consacrés aux images mobiles entre 2005 et 2015. Les images mobiles se sont multipliées (selfies, vidéos), une grande partie exposant la sphère de l’intime. Nous réfléchissons sur la prolifération des images mobiles, la créativité, la pratique amateur et la position du cinéma de poche face au cinéma traditionnel. Avec la culture de la participation et de la collaboration, les médias traditionnels ont absorbé les images mobiles publiées sur les réseaux sociaux, nouvelle matière à collaboration journalistique. Finalement, la culture mobile évolue rapidement et suscite de nombreuses questions notamment sur la réalité virtuelle et l’usage de l’image comme langage de communication. / This thesis is part of a desire (intends) to understand mobile cinema, made with a mobile device, in the contemporary landscape of the "mobile culture", understood as the set of social uses associated with mobile devices connected to the Internet producing and exploring texts, images, social media publications, etc. We analyzed it as an artistic but also behavioral and social phenomenon, through the uses and the interests (betting, implications) associated with it, especially to those related to innovation. We have done a series of interviews with professionals connected with the pocket cinema. Pocket cinema appears as a cinematographic mode of expression accessible to any individual with a mobile device, who has widely used new resources of dissemination via the Internet and has become part of a contemporary trend of the creative economy. We analyze the distribution of pocket films on video platforms on the web and in festivals dedicated to mobile images between 2005 and 2015. Mobile images have multiplied (selfies, videos), exposing even in a more intimate context. We reflected on the proliferation of mobile images, creativity, amateur practice and the position of the pocket cinema in the face of traditional cinema. With the culture of participation and collaboration, mainstream media have absorbed mobile images published on social media, a new way of collaboration focused on journalism. Finally, the mobile culture evolves rapidly and raises many questions, in particular about virtual reality and the use of the image as a language of communication.