Info Centre Research Articles

Diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with Quercus petraea in the national park Fruška gora in the Republic of Serbia

Although sessile oak is one of the most important deciduous forest tree species in Europe, data on the diversity of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi on sessile oaks in the Republic of Serbia are scarce. The aim of this study was to provide the first insight into the diversity of ECM fungi on sessile oak in Serbia. Two sites Info center and Brankovac, located in National Park Fruška gora were chosen. ECM fungi were identified combining morphological and anatomical characterization with molecular analysis of nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. All vital ECM root tips were counted, diversity indices were calculated, and ECM fungi were classified into the exploration types. The granulometric and chemical composition of soil were analyzed as well. At both sites, 26 different ECM fungal taxa were recorded in total, 17 taxa were observed at the site Info center and 12 taxa at Brankovac. ECM communities consisted of a few abundant taxa and a larger number of rare taxa. Lactarius quietus, Cenococcum geophilum, and Tomentella sublilacina were recorded at both sites. High abundance of contact and short-distance exploration types recorded in studied stands suggests that soils are sufficiently rich in total nitrogen and organic matter. Values of diversity indices recorded in studied sessile oak stands from Fruška gora were lower in comparison to those obtained in stands of different oak species across Europe which is likely induced by drought. To get a more thorough insight into the diversity of ECM fungi on sessile oak, research should be continued at more sites and seasonal dynamics should be included.

Johnny Cash International: How and Why Fans Love the Man in Black

Johnny Cash International: How and Why Fans Love the Man in Black

Smart energy harvesting performance of photovoltaic roof assemblies in Canadian climate

ABSTRACT In Canada, the solar electricity sector is growing rapidly. Much of this success is based on the growth of the Ontario solar market where more than 99% of Canada’s solar electricity is generated. Ontario has developed a globally recognized solar market sector. The vast surface area of existing residential roofs across Canada represents an untapped resource for capitalizing on passive and active management of impinging solar insolation. The aim of the current research study is to evaluate the new energy harvesting technologies such as a thin-film PV integrated roof system that could serve as a conventional roofing for weather protection while generating clean solar electricity, and the new generation micro inverters that have the potential to outperform string inverters under shading and snow-cover conditions. This paper has two parts that will discuss about two smart energy harvesting technologies and their performance on residential applications in Canadian climate. Part 1 of the paper focusses on field evaluation of Roof Integrated Photovoltaic (RIPV) and Part 2 talks about the energy yield performance of integrated solar tiles and new generation micro inverters. The RIPV field trial took place at the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (CCHT) Info Centre in Ottawa, Canada. This is a novel approach adapted from a roofing system that would typically be found on low-sloped roofs such as commercial supermarkets, industrial warehouses and school buildings. Over the eight month study period, surmounting the effects of snow cover and shadows, the RIPV system generated over 1 MWh of electricity, and had a measured system efficiency of 5.3%. The study on the new generation micro inverters for residential applications addressed the shading effects on the intermittent nature of solar energy generation. Simulating the shading conditions that are experienced by typical residential rooftop, the micro inverters were found to increase production by 1–68% relative to the conventional string inverters. The research outcome of this study has demonstrated that both these energy harvesting technologies have important incremental benefits in increasing the renewables contribution to power generation in residential homes in Canadian climatic conditions.

Observations of the first GameSense-branded responsible gambling centre in a US casino

Objective: To help mitigate potential gambling harm, responsible gambling information centres are launching across casino venues in North America. The launch of the first such centre in the USA provided an opportunity to achieve three goals: (1) document the centre’s reach among casino patrons, (2) generate a comprehensive description of services provided, and (3) explore the potential for a dose–response relationship between centre exposure and gambling beliefs and behaviour. Design: We documented services provided and surveyed consecutive centre visitors. Setting: We achieved these goals at the GameSense Info Center, located in the first Massachusetts casino. Method: Programme staff recorded their services via electronic checklist and administered one-page surveys to visitors with whom they discussed problem or responsible gambling. Results: Programme staff reported engaging directly with approximately 1% of daily patrons. About 70% of their interactions were casual. During conversations that did move beyond a casual nature, programme staff typically provided information about responsible gambling, consistent with patrons’ self-reported needs and concerns. Finally, among a sample of patrons who repeatedly engaged with programme staff at the most involved level ( N = 129), those with relatively little programme exposure were more likely to hold an accurate gambling belief but less likely to report having set time limits on their casino visits. Conclusion: We did not observe support for the notion that using an on-site information centre to teach patrons about important gambling concepts is associated with more responsible gambling behaviour.

An Iaas Cloud System with FederationThreshold

Cloud information center management may be a key downside as a result of the various and heterogeneous methods which will be applied, starting from the VM placement to the federation with different clouds. Performance analysis of Cloud Computing infrastructures is needed to predict and quantify the cost-benefit of a method portfolio and therefore the corresponding Quality of Service (QoS) toughened by users. Such analyses aren't possible by simulation or on-the-field experimentation, as a result of the good variety of parameters that have to be compelled to be investigated. during this paper, we have a tendency to gift AN analytical model, supported random Reward Nets (SRNs), that's each ascendable to model systems composed of thousands of resources and versatile to represent totally different policies and cloud-specific methods. Many performance metrics ar outlined and evaluated to research the behavior of a Cloud information center: utilization, convenience, waiting time, and responsiveness. A resiliency analysis is additionally provided to require under consideration load bursts. Finally, a general approach is given that, ranging from the thought of system capability, will facilitate system managers to opportunely set the info center parameters below totally different operating conditions.

Alcoolémies prescrites au SAU sur une période de six ans (2003–2008) : leçons à tirer de l’expérience du centre hospitalier de Roanne

We evaluated the prescribing practices of the alcohol test in the emergency department of our hospital and change in societal attitudes over a period long enough to infer trends. The retrospective covers the period from 2003 to 2008. The results are extracted from the database of the laboratory (Info Centre, LMX Siemens). The study shows a significant increase in prescriptions for alcohol over the period, about 10% each year (R 2 = 0.9844). The rate of positive examination is very high with an average of 61% but with a downward trend (R 2 = 0.7408). The average blood alcohol is surprisingly stable at 2.10 g/L CV = 3.1% of a population of patients with a mean age of 50.25 years tending to be younger (R 2 = 0.8771). These results seem to stimulate reflection on two axes: firstly, to ensure the relevance of the requirements of examinations of Biology and secondly, to adapt the strategy of prevention of avoidable risks in public health related to alcohol to the extent that the expenditure incurred by these societal attitudes have a significant weight on health spending. Nous avons évalué les pratiques de prescription de l’alcoolémie au service d’accueil et d’urgence (SAU) et l’évolution des comportements sociétaux sur une période suffisamment longue pour en déduire des tendances. L’étude rétrospective porte sur la période de 2003 à 2008. Les résultats sont extraits de la base de données du laboratoire (Info Centre ® , LMX ® Siemens). L’étude montre une augmentation significative des prescriptions d’alcoolémies sur la période, d’environ 10 % chaque année (R 2 = 0,9844). Le taux de positivité de l’examen est très élevé avec une moyenne à 61 % mais une tendance à la baisse (R 2 = 0,7408). La moyenne annuelle des alcoolémies est étonnamment stable à 2,10 g/L CV = 3,1 % sur une population de patient d’âge moyen de 50,25 ans tendant à se rajeunir (R 2 = 0,8771). Ces résultats nous paraissent pouvoir susciter une réflexion sur deux axes : premièrement garantir la pertinence des prescriptions des examens de biologie et deuxièmement adapter la stratégie de prévention des risques évitables en santé publique lié à l’alcoolisme dans la mesure où les dépenses induites par ces comportements sociétaux ont un poids important sur les dépenses de santé.

Solar Info Center Freiburg (Germany) An energy efficient name card for clean energy development

This article elaborates on the development and role of the Solar Info Center in the City of Freiburg, Germany. In 1998, the idea of the Solar Info Center was conceived with the vision to create a service center for all aspects of sustainable building and habitation, from renewable energy and energy efficiency to eco-friendly construction materials. Today, whatever a customer might be looking for – whether it is technical competence, planning, consultancy, project development, product engineering, Research and Development (R&D), education and training, legal advice, events, exhibitions or education – everything in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency– it can be found at this marketplace. The building of the Solar Info Center features a rational, sustainable and ecological energy and technology concept and is the first certified office building in Germany to be heated emission-free by 100 %. Three years in the official monitoring program of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology ver...

Can Technology Acceptance Model be Applied on the Rural Setting: The Case of Village Development and Security Committee in Malaysia

Problem statement: Malaysia has come out with a number of strategies such as National Information Technology Center, Universal Services Provider, Rural Internet Center and Rural Info Center to strengthen and encourage ICT usage among the rural community. Besides the efforts that are brought by the government, do the rural community especially their leaders which are the Village Development and Security Committee use ICT? Approach: The main objective of this study was to investigate any relationship that might occur between variables of Technology Acceptance Model and ICT usage among Village Development and Security Committee. A total of 240 Village Development and Security Committees were selected as the respondents for this study where a developed questionnaire was used to gain the data needed. For the purpose of analysis, SPSS was used where descriptive and inferential analyses were performed. Results: Based on the analyses run, it can be concluded that Village Development and Security Committee in Malaysia have a moderate level of ICT usage. Further analyses run showed that all of the three variables of Technology Acceptance Model namely attitude, perceive ease of use and perceive usefulness have a positive and significant relationship with ICT usage while attitude was detected as the main contributor towards ICT usage among Village Development and Security Committee. Conclusion/Recommendation: This study has revealed that Technology Acceptance Model that was used to explain ICT usage can be applied within the Malaysian rural setting. It also can be concluded that Village Development and Security Committee with a high level of attitude, perceive ease of use and perceive usefulness towards ICT will have higher level of ICT usage. To further develop and sustain this high level of attitude, perceive ease of use and perceive usefulness towards ICT usage, Village Development and Security Committee must be frequently exposed to ICT information and knowledge. It is recommended that ICT house to house training can be conducted among the Village Development and Security Committee by the related agencies.

WebWatch

BioTechniquesVol. 39, No. 5 WebWatchOpen AccessWebWatchKevin AhernKevin AhernSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:30 May 2018https://doi.org/10.2144/05395WW01AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit Seq and FindWant more out of your BLAST searches? Well, of course you do! In the latest wrinkle on online sequence analysis, Sequerome ups the ante for thousands of online BLAST sites on the web by offering more than just simple retrieval of homologs to entered query sequences. How about restriction enzyme maps or ORF identification for DNAs or secondary structure predictions for protein sequences? CpG islands anyone? Like a free online version of commercial DNA/protein sequence analysis packages, Sequerome is sure to be popular with everyone doing sequence analysis on a tight budget.sequerome.georgetown.edu/blast/index.jspBacteriacastingLive from New York (Ithaca, NY, to be specific), it's Microbeworld, produced cooperatively by Finger Lakes Productions and the American Society for Microbiology. Organized around a set of daily RealPlayer-formatted au-diocasts about microbes, Microbeworld is one of the most unusual sources of information about bacteria to be found on the web. Daily reports on Microbeworld span a wide gamut of interests, from rabies immunization of raccoons for slowing the spread of the disease to how Streptococcus bacteria dissolve human blood clots and facilitate their spread in the body. Spots are typically about 90 seconds long, providing a bacterial “thought for the day” that is long enough to inform, but short enough to keep even the MTV generation from getting bored.www.microbeworld.org/home.htmDriving Bugs NutsImagine you're a lonely Dipteran looking for a hot date on a summer night. Wouldn't it be great to find the perfect “cologne” to attract the mate of your dreams? More likely, you're a scientist looking to learn more about insect attractants. No matter how you look at insects, you're likely to be delighted with the discoveries to be had at Pherobase, an online database of pheromones and semiochemicals (chemicals affecting insect behavior) for over 7000 species. Users will love the site's easy access. Browse data according to many fields of interest—by taxonomic classification, by compound name, by synthesis, by mechanism of action, or even by reference—and then swim in the sea of results that are retrieved.www.pherobase.comStem Cell 101Is there a high-tech topic in the news that has generated more interest, curiosity, and controversy than stem cells? Probably not, so the time is ripe for a site to educate the curious and help the cognoscenti to navigate important data. Meeting the needs of this diverse group is the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Stem Cell Information Page that employs a four-part organizational scheme. Scientists can find what they're after in Research Topics. Federal Policy can be viewed in the section of the same name. News/Announcements (recent headlines) and Info Center (general information on the topic) round out the offerings. Serving very diverse audiences is a significant challenge, but NIH's Stem Cell Information Page is the rare effort that succeeds where many fail.stemcells.nih.gov/index.aspBeneath the WavesPeer deep into a drop of seawater. It's full of bacteria, as you might imagine, but you'll probably be surprised to learn that most of the life forms therein aren't readily propagated in the laboratory, and in many cases, it's not really clear why. Considering that over 70% of the earth's surface is covered by seawater, that's a LOT of earthly life that we hardly know anything about. How to study? Enter the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which seeks to “improve the quality of life for future generations” by funding initiatives to increase our knowledge of species in marine habitats. Amazingly enough, some of the efforts use genomic DNA sequencing as a means to characterize an organism before anything else about it is known. How's that for technology turning biology on its ear?www.moore.org/microgenome/worldmap.aspFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 39, No. 5 Follow us on social media for the latest updates Metrics History Published online 30 May 2018 Published in print November 2005 Information© 2005 Author(s)PDF download

MIPS analysis of natural resource consumption in two university buildings

This article presents the findings of a study to investigate the scale and content of natural resource consumption in two Finnish university buildings, as well as the sensitivity of these calculations to the particular assumptions used. The calculations were made using the MIPS method. In the Physicum building, the main factors contributing to abiotic natural resource consumption were, in order of importance, use-phase electrical energy, mechanical and electrical services, rock excavation, the building's frame and use-phase heating. In the Viikki Info Centre building, the role of heating was less significant. Consumption of biotic natural resources was marginal. In both buildings the majority of water resource consumption was the result of use-phase electrical energy use. Air consumption was mainly the result of the building's heating and electricity use. For abiotic natural resource consumption, the calculations were most sensitive to a halving of the service life of the building. The consumption of water and air was strongly influenced by the type of power plant from which the building's energy sources originated. Reducing the natural resource consumption of a building is something that should be targeted right from the start, at the design stage. Since most of a building's natural resource use is attributable to just a few factors, the calculation and control activities should focus on these very factors, such as use-phase energy, earthworks, the building's frame and copper-containing mechanical and electrical services.

Integration of management systems

Quality management systems have become almost compulsory in many branches of industry in the last few years. A similar development seems to be possible for environmental management. In addition, maintenance of industrial health and safety standards must be considered by the management of any company. A main problem arise from this analysis: how is it possible to transfer and to apply these concepts to SMEs? The Euro Info Centre EIC/IT 378 charged the Research Centre for Quality and Environment of the University of Padova to conceive and realise a guide for SMEs aiming at the integration of the environmental management systems with the quality and the occupational health and safety ones. A second tool, an IMS self‐assessment guide, is now under realisation in order to achieve a European validation of the proposed model.

Patent information services on the Internet: threat or valuable resource for information centres? The Italian experience

Value added services: The threat of the Internet – Will patent databases on the Internet make Info Centres superflous by providing a direst contact between users and basic free information. The potential advantages of the Internet-Basic free information on the Internet as a first step to attract customers towards more advanced searches made available by e-mail. Collecting patent, technical and business information from a larger range of databases and sending them by attaching files. The experience of information operators is made available on the desk of inventors and companies in a very short time: example of “push technology”. Another potential Internet advantage – The Italian law concerning electronic signature for the release of official patent documents via the Internet. Emerging problems: Fees for advanced searches and services – are they compatible with a public information service? The legal problems. The problems regarding ways of payment – bank transfer, credit card, prepaid services for frequent users. Is a prepaid service for advanced searches compatible with a public information service? Emerging opportunities: Internet and e-commerce services as means to promote the patent system and innovation and to create new jobs. Patent information on the Internet in Italy: A short description of the main web sites in Italy – Italian Patent Office in Rome and Patlib Info Centre in Milan, their development and their experience including statistical data. The use of esp@cenet and of other Internet patent sources in the Italian Patent Information Network (Patent Office and Regional Patlib Info Centres). Future plans and perspectives.

European Documentation Centres: Their role in EC information provision, with particular reference to the United Kingdom

European Documentation Centres (EDCs) were set up by the European Communities (EC) to facilitate the study of the EC and the European integration process in institutions of higher education. The use made of these large and rapidly expanding collections has been variable, but many EDC librarians have built up an expertise in EC documentation and have made considerable efforts to facilitate the use of these valuable centres of information by users. In the United Kingdom (U.K.) EDC librarians came together to form the Association of EDC Librarians in 1981. The Association has been active in promoting knowledge about EC documentation to its members and others interested in EC information. The association has also been instrumental in some of the improvements in the organisation of the EDC network and in EC documentation generally that has taken place in the 1980s. There has recently been considerable uncertainty amongst EDC librarians in the United Kingdom and other countries about their role in overall EC information provision. The European Commission has attempted to rationalise the EDC network by introducing a new selective distribution system in order to cut costs. This will seriously undermine efforts by EDC librarians to fully exploit their collections and to promote EC information services to a wider community than those in the academic institutions in which they are based. Can, or should, EDCs be seen as an integral part of EC information policy working in close cooperation with the institutions and the Press and Information Offices to promote Europe? If all, or some, EDCs are to carry out this function, there are implications in terms of finance (staffing, additional resources in equipment, and material) and attitudes (the Commission has to clarify its position towards EDCs, and librarians/documentalists have to move beyond being custodians of EC documentation to becoming experts in the information contained within the documentation). The involvement of EDCs in the Euro Info Centre (EIC) initiative provides one way forward.