Value-added Features Research Articles

Adapting Drying Technologies for Agri-Food Market Development in India

The adoption of new drying technologies is greatly favored by measures taken to adapt the technology to meet local needs. Drying technologies can offer opportunities for new product development, value-added features for enhanced nutrition and shelf stability for food supply management. Existing drying technologies must be modified/adapted to meet the many different properties of traditional Indian commodities and offer potential benefits for entrepreneurial developments. Much of the production and postharvest handling of products in India are done by low-income farmers in rural settings; hence, technological improvements must be based on low-cost available materials and renewable sources of energy. This article presents some of the drying developments accomplished in southern India.

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Terminal-embedded beamforming for wireless local area networks

In dense traffic areas, wireless local area networks (WLANs) suffer from interference problems due to the congestion of the open and unlicensed ISM band. To mitigate these problems, a terminal-embedded beamforming framework is proposed. This beamforming is capable of focusing the transmission and the reception in the direction of the relevant access point. At the same time, the framework is backward compatible with existing WLAN networks. The beam- forming enabled terminal benefits in terms of capacity, security, and energy efficiency without requiring any changes on the network side or requiring new investment on the part of network providers. The beamforming solution is seen as an attractive value-added feature, as well as a low-cost solution for the future WLAN terminal design. This opens the door for mobile device manufacturers to include the proposed solution in their product line. In this work, the backward- compatibility challenges are addressed, and possible solutions and limitations are discussed. A prototype design built on a laptop computer also is described. The experimental results show a significant capacity increase in both an interference-free scenario and an interference-limited scenario.

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Is dialysis alive as a membrane-based separation technique?

We give an overview of the contribution of dialysis to current analytical laboratories in order to assess its capabilities as a sensitive (in some modes) and, particularly, as a selective technique for isolating target compounds from complex samples. We also describe dialysis membranes and basic dialyzers and their integration into continuous manifolds as a starting point for new designs. We discuss some old applications, but particularly focus on recent contributions of the different types of dialysis, with special emphasis on those involving continuous systems that provide high added-value features. Finally, we outline dialysis alternatives that mean we can predict that this membrane-based separation technique will have a long life.

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Can open access repositories and peer-reviewed journals coexist?

It is often assumed that open access repositories and peer-reviewed journals are in competition with each other and therefore will in the long term be unable to coexist. This paper takes a critical look at that assumption. It draws on the available evidence of actual practice which indicates that coexistence is possible at least in the medium term. It discusses possible future models of publication and dissemination which include open access, repositories, peer review and journals. The paper suggests that repositories and journals may coexist in the long term but that both may have to undergo significant changes. Important areas where changes need to occur include: widespread deployment of repository infrastructure, development of version identification standards, development of value-added features, new business models, new approaches to quality control and adoption of digital preservation as a repository function.

Rapid e‐learning software: what should we be looking for?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide learning and development professionals with a succinct overview of what they should expect from any rapid e‐learning software.Design/methodology/approachProvides a viewpoint on rapid e‐learning software.FindingsThe paper makes a sound case for investment in rapid e‐learning software. It cites a number of key drivers including the ever‐reducing lead times for new e‐learning; the savings that can be made and the control that can be regained by developing product in‐house. Any rapid authoring tool should enable the user to create a simple course within minutes of launching the software. In addition, it should provide the following features as a minimum: intuitive user interface; interactivity with other applications; options for collaborative working – e.g. server side development; accessibility and good after sales support. The paper goes on to explore some of the additional characteristics that provide greater value and emphasizes the speed at which these products are changing, making it imperative that learning and development professionals keep themselves up to date with the changing marketplace.Practical implicationsFor anyone looking to source authoring tools, this article gives invaluable advice on the features any purchase should provide. It will particularly assist those with little experience in the area as well as providing timely reminders and suggestions for those more familiar with the world of e‐learning software.Originality/valueIt highlights the benefits and features that should without question be incorporated into any rapid e‐learning software and identifies a number of examples of added value features that buyers should look out for.

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Capacity enhancement by terminal originated beamforming for wireless local area networks

In dense traffic areas, wireless local area networks (WLANs) suffer from interference problems due to the usage of the crowded unlicensed ISM band and the lack of available spectrum. To mitigate these problems, a terminal side beamforming framework is proposed--this beamforming is capable of focusing the transmission and the reception in the relevant direction of the access point to exploit the directivity of the indoor propagation channel. It provides network transparency to achieve the backwards compatibility to the existing WLAN networks, and vendor transparency to ease the system design process and thereby achieve low complexity and costs. The beamforming enabled terminal benefits in terms of capacity, energy efficiency, and security while it does not require any change on the network side costing network providers new investments. It will be an attractive value-added feature as well as low-cost solution for the future WLAN terminal design opening the door for WLAN terminal manufacturers to include the proposed solution into their product line. In this work, a WLAN terminal beamforming demonstrator has been developed to demonstrate the capacity enhancement in real environments. Signal to interference ratio (SIR) improvement as well as array gain were investigated by simulations with IEEE 802.11n cluster channel models and by experiments with the demonstrator in a typical office environment. The comparable results of simulations and experiments show significant array gain and SIR improvement. The significant capacity increase has been demonstrated in the experiments in both an interference free scenario and an interference limited scenario.

The Added Value Features of Online Scholarly Journals

Online scholarly journals have become an important tool for the generation of knowledge and the distribution and access to research. The purpose of this article is to analyze the features of online scholarly journals and to determine whether they incorporate new Internet-enabled features and functions which help to meet the needs of the members of the scholarly community more effectively. Drawing on Taylor's concept of added value [1], the features of online scholarly journals were classified into the following types: features which enhance ease of use and facilitate access to data, features that provide selected information and thus reduce noise, features which improve quality, features which address specific user needs, and features which contribute to time or cost savings. The analysis revealed that, although some online journals operate in the same way as print journals, there are others which incorporate innovative features which are transforming the journal to make it a more effective tool for scholarly activity.

SOAP and Web Services

Interest in Web services has increased rapidly since their first appearance a few years ago. They are a key value-added feature of today's Internet, making it feasible to combine different applications and so generate new services based on existing applications. Feasibility, however, doesn't mean easy connectivity to all we can see and use on the Internet - in terms of either usability or software integration. The author introduces Web services and how to use SOAP to assemble such services. He presents an example built from scratch, lessons learned along the way, and a comparison of various SOAP implementation states of practice

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An Interview with Jack Farrell of AccessMedicine

This interview with Jack Farrell, Vice President of Medical Content Development for McGraw-Hill, describes Web-based and handheld-downloadable clinical content available in McGraw-Hill's AccessMedicine database including Harrison's Online, Gold Standard Media's Clinical Pharmacology, USMLE test preparation, LANGE Educational Library, CURRENT Medical Diagnosis & Treatment series, and value-added features such as content updating, semantic tagging, and podcasting.

Laboratory network of excellence: enhancing patient safety and service effectiveness / Labor-Network of Excellence: bessere Sicherheit für Patienten und effektivere Labordienstleistungen

Abstract Clinical laboratories have undergone major changes due to technological progress and economic pressure. While costs of laboratory testing continue to be the dominant issue within the healthcare service worldwide, quality, effectiveness and impact on outcomes are also emerging as critical value-added features. Five Italian laboratories are therefore promoting a network of excellence by investigating markers of effectiveness of laboratory services and sharing their experience of using them in clinical practice. In the present study we report preliminary data on indicators of quality in all phases of the so-called total testing process, the key to evaluating all phases of the total testing process, including the appropriateness of test requests and data interpretation. Initial findings in evaluating pre-analytical causes of specimen rejection in three different laboratories and the effects of introducing three laboratory clinical guidelines are reported. These data should stimulate debate in the scientific community and encourage more clinical laboratories to use the same indicators to improve clinical effectiveness and clinical outcomes within the healthcare service.

Diversified users’ satisfaction with advanced mobile phone features

Mobile phones are widely used all over the world, and with their increasing number of value-added features, they are becoming far more than a mere mobile voice communication device. Rather, they pr...

Service-Learning in Undergraduate Nursing Curricula

<h4>Service-Learning in Undergraduate Nursing Curricula</h4> <p>Much has been written about service-learning in higher education. In 1973, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education called for higher education institutions to recognize the value-added features of service-learning. Since then, many disciplines have engaged students in service as a part of their curricula and have conducted research supporting the positive outcomes of service-learning as a teaching-learning strategy. Boyer (1981) identified service-learning as a means to advance the scholarship of teaching that would be recognized at universities for the purposes of faculty advancement. [more...]</p>

Biochemical Journal -- the first 100 years online

As a result of a collaborative project between the Wellcome Trust, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) and Portland Press, the entire archive of the Biochemical Journal -- from 1906 to date -- is now freely available online on both PubMed Central® (PMC) and the Biochemical Journal websites. This article provides the background to the project, as well as highlighting some of the value-added features that the online version offers to the clinician, researcher and medical historian.

Laboratory network of excellence: enhancing patient safety and service effectiveness

Clinical laboratories have undergone major changes due to technological progress and economic pressure. While costs of laboratory testing continue to be the dominant issue within the healthcare service worldwide, quality, effectiveness and impact on outcomes are also emerging as critical value-added features. Five Italian laboratories are therefore promoting a network of excellence by investigating markers of effectiveness of laboratory services and sharing their experience of using them in clinical practice. In the present study we report preliminary data on indicators of quality in all phases of the so-called total testing process, the key to evaluating all phases of the total testing process, including the appropriateness of test requests and data interpretation. Initial findings in evaluating pre-analytical causes of specimen rejection in three different laboratories and the effects of introducing three laboratory clinical guidelines are reported. These data should stimulate debate in the scientific community and encourage more clinical laboratories to use the same indicators to improve clinical effectiveness and clinical outcomes within the healthcare service.