Transfer Utility Research Articles

End station refrigerator 2 cryoplant at Jefferson Lab

The End Station Refrigerator 2 (ESR2) cryoplant will provide cryogens to three of the four experimental halls in support of 12 GeV Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) experimental demands. In particular, the near-future Measurement of a Lepton-Lepton Electroweak Reaction (MOLLER) experiment requires the additional capacity provided by ESR2. This new cryoplant consists of a 4.0 kW at 4.5-Kelvin cold box and a two-stage compressor system. The cold box and compressor equipment were received from the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project and are being refurbished to meet Jefferson Lab’s future operating needs. The ESR2 cryoplant includes a new, 50+ m long cold transfer line, bayonet-can, utility system, and control system. The paper describes the fabrication and installation challenges faced, mitigations adopted, and future work plans for the cryoplant.

An Alternative Prototype for Improving Windows’ Method of Data Transmission for Copying and Moving Files

Empirical studies comparing the speed or rate of data transmission of various file transfer software versus Windows default file transfer utility have rarely been attempted. Here we describe an implementation of the file transfer utility (prototype) integrating the concepts of multi-threading, dynamic buffer partitioning, and Tel’s knapsack algorithm and conducting an experiment against Windows 7 default file transfer utility (commercial) with regards to their transmission rate. Presented here is our motivation, experimental approach, issues in attempting this type of empirical study, and a summary of the experimental results and insights gained.

An innovative constructional and technical method of using a prefabricated, dowelled reinforced concrete slab for effective repairs of airport pavements

Abstract: Airport pavements, constituting the ground part of the maneuvering area intended for the movement, parking and servicing of aircraft, are an extremely important element of the airport infrastructure. The main task of the pavement is to transfer utility loads from moving or standing aircraft. The technical condition of airport pavements, which should not raise any doubts, is a key element for ensuring the safety of air operations. The repair method consisting in the use of a prefabricated airport slab in the place of excessive degradation of existing slabs introduces a pioneering method of connecting slabs with adjacent slabs, creating a new construction quality that increases the spatial stiffness of the entire functional element of the pavement. The performed dimensioning and static - strength analysis of the prefabricated airport slab using the finite element method in the aspect of the global state of effort of the structure confirmed that the technical solution with the use of a dowel joint was properly designed, because it has a positive effect on the redistribution of loads transfer between cooperating prefabricated slabs. The conducted laboratory and field tests and operational features gave clearly positive results, which determine the purposefulness of the application and popularization of this repair method. The implementation experience gathered in the course of the work carried out allows to state the complete technical efficiency of the proposed design solution. Considering the relatively quick and easy replacement of the slabs without the need to introduce longer breaks in air traffic, this technology can be successfully used in both civil and military aviation. The potential of this technical solution can also be used in the repair of concrete road surfaces. Keywords: Prefabricated slab; Airport; Airport pavements; Carrying capacity; Damage to concrete pavements; Dowels; Security

Layout Model of Bike-Sharing Facilities in the Transfer-Influenced Area of a Subway Station

This paper aims to improve transfer utility between bike-sharing and subway. For this paper, the transfer costs of three combined travel modes were analyzed, including “Bike-sharing + Subway”, “Walking + Subway” and “Bus + Subway”, and a transfer cost function, including time cost and expense cost, was constructed. Cluster analysis was carried out on the origin and destination of bike-sharing in the transfer-influenced area. The sum of squares of errors and the service radius were used to verify the clustering results. Then the number of alternative facilities, the location of alternative facilities and the initial number of shared bikes were preliminarily predicted. Based on the initial scheme, a bi-level programming model of facility layout and configuration in bike-sharing was established, with the goal of improving ride volume and reducing the transfer cost and facility-operation costs to optimize the initial facility-allocation scheme. Then a heuristic algorithm was used to solve the model. Finally, a typical subway station was selected as a case, and the configuration process for facilities in bike-sharing is discussed in detail in the paper. The research results of this paper may provide reference for the planning and optimization adjustments of facilities for bike-sharing.

Systematic review and cost-effectiveness of bosentan and sildenafil as therapeutic drugs for pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare disease in children, with significant mortality. Because of the limited research on pediatric PAH, first, systematic review of related drugs is conducted, and then economic evaluation of PAH drug treatment programs is conducted, which to provide a reference for the choice of more cost-effective treatment options. The search includes electronic databases such as Pubmed, ScienceDirect, and Embase. Through inclusion and exclusion criteria, screen high-quality randomized controlled trials. We used TreeAge Pro 2011 software to construct the markov model, that to simulate the total medical cost and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and to calculate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. Sensitivity analysis of transfer probability, utility, and cost was carried out. Incorporate two studies that meet the criteria, one compared the therapeutic effects of bosentan and placebo on pediatric PAH, the other compared therapeutic effects of sildenafil and placebo on pediatric PAH, both articles were of good quality. Compared with the sildenafil group (3.38QALYs and $161,120.14), the QALY of the bosentan treatment group (3.33QALYs and $257,411.29) was reduced by 0.05, and the cost increased by $96,291.15. The estimated improvement to quality of life and reduced costs result in an estimate of economic dominance for sildenafil over bosentan. This dominant result persisted probabilistic analyses. Based on this model, a more cost-effective treatment drug for PAH in children is sildenafil.

The first complete genome sequence of the African swine fever virus genotype X and serogroup 7 isolated in domestic pigs from the Democratic Republic of Congo

BackgroundAfrican swine fever (ASF), a highly contagious hemorrhagic disease, affects domestic pigs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where regular outbreaks are reported leading to high mortality rates approaching 100% in the affected regions. No study on the characteristics of the complete genome of strains responsible for ASF outbreaks in the South Kivu province of DRC is available, limited a better understanding of molecular evolution and spread of this virus within the country. The present study aimed at determining the complete genome sequence of ASFV strains genotype X involved in 2018–2019 ASF disease outbreaks in South Kivu province of DRC.Materials and methodsGenomic DNA of a spleen sample from an ASFV genotype X-positive domestic pig in Uvira, during the 2018–2019 outbreaks in South Kivu, was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq X platform. Obtained trimmed reads using Geneious Prime 2020.0.4 were blasted against a pig reference genome then contigs were generated from the unmapped reads enriched in ASFV DNA using Spades implemented in Geneious 2020.0.4. The assembly of the complete genome sequence of ASFV was achieved from the longest overlapping contigs. The new genome was annotated with the genome annotation transfer utility (GATU) software and the CLC Genomics Workbench 8 software was further used to search for any ORFs that failed to be identified by GATU. Subsequent analyses of the newly determined Uvira ASFV genotype X genome were done using BLAST for databases search, CLUSTAL W for multiple sequences alignments and MEGA X for phylogeny.Results42 Gbp paired-end reads of 150 bp long were obtained containing about 0.1% of ASFV DNA. The assembled Uvira ASFV genome, termed Uvira B53, was 180,916 bp long that could be assembled in 2 contigs. The Uvira B53genome had a GC content of 38.5%, encoded 168 open reading frames (ORFs) and had 98.8% nucleotide identity with the reference ASFV genotype X Kenya 1950. The phylogenetic relationship with selected representative genomes clustered the Uvira B53 strain together with ASFV genotype X reported to date (Kenya 1950 and Ken05/Tk1). Multiple genome sequences comparison with the two reference ASFV genotype X strains showed that 130 of the 168 ORFs were fully conserved in the Uvira B53. The other 38 ORFs were divergent mainly due to SNPs and indels (deletions and insertions). Most of 46 multigene family (MGF) genes identified were affected by various genetic variations. However, 8 MGF ORFs present in Kenya 1950 and Ken05/Tk1 were absent from the Uvira B53 genome including three members of MGF 360, four of MGF 110 and one of MGF 100 while one MGF ORF (MGF 360-1L) at the left end of the genome was truncated in Uvira B53. Moreover, ORFs DP96R and p285L were also absent in the Uvira B53 genome. In contrast, the ORF MGF 110-5L present in Uvira B53 and Ken05/Tk1 was missing in Kenya 1950. The analysis of the intergenic region between the I73R and I329L genes also revealed sequence variations between the three genotype X strains mainly characterized by a deletion of 69 bp in Uvira B53 and 36 bp in Kenya 1950, compared to Ken05/Tk1. Assessment of the CD2v (EP402R) antigen unveiled the presence of SNPs and indels particularly in the PPPKPY tandem repeat region between selected variants representing the eight serogroups reported to date. Uvira B53 had identical CD2v variable region to the Uganda (KM609361) strain, the only other ASFV serogroup 7 reported to date.ConclusionWe report the first complete genome sequence of an African swine fever virus (ASFV) p72 genotype X and CD2v serogroup 7, termed Uvira B53. This study provides additional insights on genetic characteristics and evolution of ASFV useful for tracing the geographical spread of ASF and essential for improved design of control and management strategies against ASF.

Social equity in supplier\u2013buyer relationships in smallholder agri-food supply chains

We study supplier–buyer relationships in smallholder agri-food supply chains with equity concerns and under stakeholder engagement. We develop a game theoretic model to study the impact of these socially responsible practices in investment and pricing decisions. We model this as a Stackelberg game and study the impacts of the power structure in the outcomes. Our work was motivated by the business model of socially responsible Mexican company Fractal Café. We provide closed form expressions for the optimal wholesale and retail prices, and numerically study the effect of the model parameters. We show that equity concerns drive a redistribution of the profit towards an equitable outcome, but they do not have the same effect on the investment decisions. Additionally, we show that equity concerns may reverse the advantage of the game leader and transfer utility to the follower. We identify the settings under which the introduction of socially responsible practices increases the total supply chain profit by reducing the double marginalization effect. We find that capacity constraints result in a higher retail price, achieved by increasing the leader’s margin. Finally, we show that a two-part tariff contract with equity concerns is only convenient for the game follower when the leader has a high concern for advantageous inequity.

Multi-Objective Optimization Model for P + R and K + R Facilities’ Collaborative Layout Decision

In order to reduce the pressure on urban road traffic, multi-modal travel is gradually replacing single-modal travel. Park and ride (P + R) and kiss and ride (K + R) are effective methods to integrate car transportation and rail transit. However, there is often an imbalance between supply and demand in existing car occupant transfer facilities, which include both P + R and K + R facilities. Therefore, we aim to conduct a research on P + R and K + R facilities’ collaborative decision. It first classifies car occupant transfer facilities into types and levels and sets the service capacity of each category. On the premise of ensuring the occupancy of parking spaces, our model aims to maximize the intercepted vehicle mileage and transfer utility and establishes an optimal decision model for car occupant transfer facilities. The model collaboratively decides the facilities in terms of location selection, layout arrangement, and overflow demand conversion to balance the supply and demand. We choose Chengdu as an example, apply the multi-objective optimization model of car occupant transfer facilities, give improved schemes, and further explore the influence of the quantity of facilities on the optimization objectives. The results show that the scheme obtained by the proposed model is significantly better than the existing scheme.

An approach to generating the sequence of part variant design based on information transfer utility

PurposeProduct variant design can only be achieved after all its constituent parts have been implemented by variant design. It is necessary to plan the sequence of part variant design reasonably. The product variant design process involves a large amount of information transfer events at the dimensional level. A reasonable product variant design process needs to make full use of the information transfer characters of parts to decrease the uncertainty of product variant design process. The existing methods of researching the product variant design process mainly focus on resource constraint and activity logic. They are deficient, however, in information transfer resolution and uncertainty management. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis paper identifies the number of dimension transfer paths and the position of dimension locating within a transfer path as being the key factors affecting the information transfer role of dimension. Information transfer utility is proposed to measure the information transfer capability of dimensions and parts. Based on these, a two-stage approach of generating the sequence of part variant design based on information transfer utility is proposed.FindingsThe uncertainty of dimension constraint network is minimal during the product variant design process when parts are implemented by variant design under the sequence generated through a two-stage method based on the information transfer utilities of parts, as does the times of parameter transferring and iteration in dimension constraint network.Originality/valuePart variant design under the sequence of descending information transferring utilities can decrease the difficulty of implementing product variant design validly and also increase the efficiency. This suggests an innovative method to planning the product variant design process reasonably from the perspective of informatics.

Matched Coupling of Propargylic Carbonates with Cyclopropanols.

The ring opening-coupling reaction of cyclopropanols with propargylic carbonates affording synthetically attractive allenyl ketones has been developed. The mechanism involves the ligand-exchange reaction of in situ formed allenyl palladium methoxide with cyclopropanols followed by carbon-carbon bond cleavage and reductive elimination. The reactions proceeded smoothly under mild reaction conditions with Pd(0)/XPhos catalysis in the absence of any external base and displayed a wide scope and application to a steroidal skeleton. The efficiency of chirality transfer and synthetic utility of the allene products have also been demonstrated.

Analyzing text recognition from tactually evoked EEG.

Tactual exploration of objects produce specific patterns in the human brain and hence objects can be recognized by analyzing brain signals during tactile exploration. The present work aims at analyzing EEG signals online for recognition of embossed texts by tactual exploration. EEG signals are acquired from the parietal region over the somatosensory cortex of blindfolded healthy subjects while they tactually explored embossed texts, including symbols, numbers, and alphabets. Classifiers based on the principle of supervised learning are trained on the extracted EEG feature space, comprising three features, namely, adaptive autoregressive parameters, Hurst exponents, and power spectral density, to recognize the respective texts. The pre-trained classifiers are used to classify the EEG data to identify the texts online and the recognized text is displayed on the computer screen for communication. Online classifications of two, four, and six classes of embossed texts are achieved with overall average recognition rates of 76.62, 72.31, and 67.62% respectively and the computational time is less than 2s in each case. The maximum information transfer rate and utility of the system performance over all experiments are 0.7187 and 2.0529bits/s respectively. This work presents a study that shows the possibility to classify 3D letters using tactually evoked EEG. In future, it will help the BCI community to design stimuli for better tactile augmentation n also opens new directions of research to facilitate 3D letters for visually impaired persons. Further, 3D maps can be generated for aiding tactual BCI in teleoperation.

Using sEMG, EOG and VOG to Control an Intelligent Environment

Abstract: People with disabilities have many difficulties to interact with daily devices, mostly because of inherent limitations of their deficiency. Simple activities like turning lights, TV, fan or any other device on can be even impossible for these people. In this study, the problem of interaction with an intelligent environment through two paradigms of Human-Computer Interface (HCI) was addressed. The first one uses surface electromyography (sEMG) and electrooculography (EOG), caught by an EEG/sEMG device (Emotiv EPOC), and the second one uses videooculography (VOG) caught by an eye tracker (Eye Tribe Tracker). Results from both paradigms were compared using two metrics: Information Transfer Rate (ITR) and Utility, obtaining maximum ITR of 84.37 bits/min and Utility of 37.86 bits/min.

Using IKAROS as a data transfer and management utility within the KM3NeT computing model

KM3NeT is a future European deep-sea research infrastructure hosting a new generation neutrino detectors that - located at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea - will open a new window on the universe and answer fundamental questions both in particle physics and astrophysics. IKAROS is a framework that enables creating scalable storage formations on-demand and helps addressing several limitations that the current file systems face when dealing with very large scale infrastructures. It enables creating ad-hoc nearby storage formations and can use a huge number of I/O nodes in order to increase the available bandwidth (I/O and network). IKAROS unifies remote and local access in the overall data flow, by permitting direct access to each I/O node. In this way we can handle the overall data flow at the network layer, limiting the interaction with the operating system. This approach allows virtually connecting, at the users level, the several different computing facilities used (Grids, Clouds, HPCs, Data Centers, Local computing Clusters and personal storage devices), on-demand, based on the needs, by using well known standards and protocols, like HTTP.

Are They Connected? Exploring Academic and Social Networks Among MPA Students at a Chinese University

As a complement to traditional scholarship concerned with the production, transfer, and practical utility of management knowledge in a professional graduate degree program, this paper focuses on relational benefits of MPA learning and education.1 In this exploratory study, we investigated the extent to which academic, career advice, friendship, and socio-emotional support networks were developed among a cohort of students at a Chinese university’s MPA program. We applied a social network approach to examining the structural characteristics of the four networks. We found that MPA students at this study site have developed more extensive academic and friendship than career advice and socio-emotional support networks. Students also strengthened their interactions by building multiple relationships across the different networks.

Laser-induced forward transfer of focussed ion beam pre-machined donors

In this paper we report femtosecond laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) of pre-machined donor films. 1 μm thick zinc oxide (ZnO) films were first machined using the focussed ion beam (FIB) technique up to a depth of 0.8 μm. Debris-free micro-pellets of ZnO with extremely smooth edges and surface uniformity were subsequently printed from these pre-machined donors using LIFT. Printing results of non-machined ZnO donor films and films deposited on top of a polymer dynamic release layer (DRL) are also presented for comparison, indicating the superior quality of transfer achievable and utility of this pre-machining technique.

Genome Annotation Transfer Utility (GATU): rapid annotation of viral genomes using a closely related reference genome

BackgroundSince DNA sequencing has become easier and cheaper, an increasing number of closely related viral genomes have been sequenced. However, many of these have been deposited in GenBank without annotations, severely limiting their value to researchers. While maintaining comprehensive genomic databases for a set of virus families at the Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center and Viral Bioinformatics – Canada , we found that researchers were unnecessarily spending time annotating viral genomes that were close relatives of already annotated viruses. We have therefore designed and implemented a novel tool, Genome Annotation Transfer Utility (GATU), to transfer annotations from a previously annotated reference genome to a new target genome, thereby greatly reducing this laborious task.ResultsGATU transfers annotations from a reference genome to a closely related target genome, while still giving the user final control over which annotations should be included. GATU also detects open reading frames present in the target but not the reference genome and provides the user with a variety of bioinformatics tools to quickly determine if these ORFs should also be included in the annotation. After this process is complete, GATU saves the newly annotated genome as a GenBank, EMBL or XML-format file. The software is coded in Java and runs on a variety of computer platforms. Its user-friendly Graphical User Interface is specifically designed for users trained in the biological sciences.ConclusionGATU greatly simplifies the initial stages of genome annotation by using a closely related genome as a reference. It is not intended to be a gene prediction tool or a "complete" annotation system, but we have found that it significantly reduces the time required for annotation of genes and mature peptides as well as helping to standardize gene names between related organisms by transferring reference genome annotations to the target genome.The program is freely available under the General Public License and can be accessed along with documentation and tutorial from .

Data mining middleware for wide-area high-performance networks

In this paper, we describe two distributed, data intensive applications that were demonstrated at iGrid 2005 (iGrid Demonstration US109 and iGrid Demonstration US121). One involves transporting astronomical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the other involves computing histograms from multiple high-volume data streams. Both rely on newly developed data transport and data mining middleware. Specifically, we describe a new version of the UDT network protocol called Composible-UDT, a file transfer utility based upon UDT called UDT-Gateway, and an application for building histograms on high-volume data flows called BESH (for Best Effort Streaming Histogram). For both demonstrations, we include a summary of the experimental studies performed at iGrid 2005.

Implementation of the Levels Structure Value

We implement the levels structure value (Winter, 1989) for cooperative transfer utility games with a levels structure. The mechanism is a generalization of the bidding mechanism by Perez-Castrillo and Wettstein (2001).

Focus on Analytical Equipment

Focus on Analytical Equipment

Asymmetry, imperfectly transferable utility, and the role of fiat money in improving terms of trade

We modify the Kiyotaki and Wright (1991, J. Economic Theory 53, 215–235;1993; Amer. Econom. Rev. 83,63–77) framework so that there is a universal double coincidence of wants in all barter matches. We also introduce divisible service sidepayments into the model and allow agents to bargain over bundles of goods, services and money in bilateral matches. In asymmetric matches, the agent that values the other's good more dearly will typically have to make a substantial service sidepayment to complete the bargain. When sidepayments transfer utility imperfectly, the general equilibrium is inefficient. Agents barter too much. When barter is inefficient, a robust monetary equilibrium may exist which improves welfare. Both robust monetary equilibria and welfare-improving monetary equilibria require asymmetric matches, imperfectly transferable utility, and monetary exchange yields better expected terms of trade than barter. In contrast to other search models, money does not speed up trade.