There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

A communication infrastructure is an essential part to the success of the emerging smart grid. A scalable and pervasive communication infrastructure is crucial in both construction and operation of a smart grid. In this paper, we present the background and motivation of communication infrastructures in smart grid systems. We also summarize major requirements that smart grid communications must meet. From the experience of several industrial trials on smart grid with communication infrastructures, we expect that the traditional carbon fuel based power plants can cooperate with emerging distributed renewable energy such as wind, solar, etc, to reduce the carbon fuel consumption and consequent green house gas such as carbon dioxide emission. The consumers can minimize their expense on energy by adjusting their intelligent home appliance operations to avoid the peak hours and utilize the renewable energy instead. We further explore the challenges for a communication infrastructure as the part of a complex smart grid system. Since a smart grid system might have over millions of consumers and devices, the demand of its reliability and security is extremely critical. Through a communication infrastructure, a smart grid can improve power reliability and quality to eliminate electricity blackout. Security is a challenging issue since the on-going smart grid systems facing increasing vulnerabilities as more and more automation, remote monitoring/controlling and supervision entities are interconnected.

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1315&context=electricalengineeringfacpub

A Survey on Smart Grid CommunicationInfrastructures: Motivations, Requirements andChallenges

conceptualisation (AC) Figure 2.1 The Kolb Learning Cycle First, learners are involved fully and freely in new experiences (CE). Second, they must make/have the time and space to be able to reflect on their experience from different perspectives (RO). Third, learners must be able to form, re-form and process their ideas, take ownership of them and integrate their new ideas and understanding into sound, logical theories (AC). It is these middle two elements in the cycle that can be strongly influenced by feedback from others. This moves towards the fourth point (AE), using the enhanced understanding to make decisions and problem-solve, and test implica- tions and usage in new situations. The experiential cycle does not simply involve having an experience, or ‘doing’, but also reflecting, processing, thinking and furthering understanding, and usually ‘improvement’ the next time something is encountered or done. By extension, this cyclical process has a part to play in even the most abstract and theoretical disciplines where the academic is concerned to help the learner acquire the ‘tools of the trade’ or the modes of thinking central to the discipline, such as in philosophy or literary criticism. The teacher needs to be aware that in practice learners do not cycle smoothly through the model, but may get stuck, fail to progress or ‘jump about’. The way in which the learner resolves these tensions will have an effect on the learning outcome and the development of different types of strength in the learner and, as will be seen, may pertain to personality traits and/or disciplinary differences. Reflection is a key part of experiential learning as it ‘turns experience into learning’ (Boud et al., 1985). Because of misunderstanding, overuse and its passive and negative connotations, reflection has had a worse press than it deserves, but it is also true that the research evidence about how it works is lacking. To learn from experience we need to examine and analyse the experience; this is what reflection means in this context. It may be a similar action to the one that we may consciously or subconsciously use when taking a deep approach to learning. Reflection and reflective practice are not easy concepts. With regard to higher education they may be applied to the learning of students, and equally to the professional development of the lecturer (see Part 3). Schon (1987), in examining the relationship between professional knowledge and professional competence, suggests that rather than looking to another body of research knowledge, practitioners should become more adept at observing and learning through reflection on the artistry of their own particular profession. ‘Reflection on practice’ (on experience) is central to learning and development of knowledge in the professions. Recognised ‘experts’ in the field exhibit distinct artistry. This artistry cannot be learned solely through conventional teaching methods – it requires role models, observation of competent practitioners, self-practice, mentors, experience in carrying out all the tasks of one’s job and reflection upon that practice. Support in developing reflection is often necessary, for example by using prompts and feedback. Such reflective practice is a key aspect of lifelong learning. 16 ❘ Teaching, supervising, learning

https://biblioteca.ucv.cl/site/colecciones/manuales_u/A%20Handbook%20for%20Teaching%20and%20Learning%20in%20Higher%20Education%20Enhancing%20academic%20and%20Practice.pdf

A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Motor Cognition What Actions Tell the Self

In a general sense, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) refers to a process where patients can determine when and how much medication they receive, regardless of analgesic technique. However, the term is more commonly used to describe a method of pain relief which uses disposable or electronic infusion devices and allows patients to selfadminister analgesic drugs, usually intravenous (i.v.) opioids, as required. The main focus of this review will be i.v. PCA. The overall effectiveness of any analgesic technique depends on both the degree of pain relief that can be achieved and the incidence of side effects or complications. Therefore, factors affecting efficacy and safety of PCA are often inextricably linked. This review will consider: d analgesic efficacy—compared with conventional methods of pain relief in post-operative patients (including pain relief, analgesic use and cost comparisons), when used in non-surgical patients, and with opioid administration by other than the i.v. route; d patient outcomes—patient satisfaction and post-operative morbidity; d patient factors that may affect safety and efficacy— including patient age, psychological characteristics, concurrent disorders, opioid tolerance, and inappropriate use of PCA; d equipment factors that may affect safety and efficacy— including equipment design and malfunction; d medical and nursing staff factors; d the PCA ‘prescription’—including programmable variables and drugs used.

Safety and efficacy of patient-controlled analgesia

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are one of the key enabling technologies for the internet of things (IoT). WSNs play a major role in data communications in applications such as home, health care, environmental monitoring, smart grids, and transportation. WSNs are used in IoT applications and should be secured and energy efficient in order to provide highly reliable data communications. Because of the constraints of energy, memory and computational power of the WSN nodes, clustering algorithms are considered as energy efficient approaches for resource-constrained WSNs. In this paper, we present a survey of the state-of-the-art routing techniques in WSNs. We first present the most relevant previous work in routing protocols surveys then highlight our contribution. Next, we outline the background, robustness criteria, and constraints of WSNs. This is followed by a survey of different WSN routing techniques. Routing techniques are generally classified as flat, hierarchical, and location-based routing. This survey focuses on the deep analysis of WSN hierarchical routing protocols. We further classify hierarchical protocols based on their routing techniques. We carefully choose the most relevant state-of-the-art protocols in order to compare and highlight the advantages, disadvantage and performance issues of each routing technique. Finally, we conclude this survey by presenting a comprehensive survey of the recent improvements of low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy routing protocols and a comparison of the different versions presented in the literature.

/pdf/hierarchical-routing-protocols-for-wireless-sensor-network-a-1ebz7srhhr.pdf

Hierarchical routing protocols for wireless sensor network: a compressive survey

Engineering education today does not appear to be keeping pace with the broader challenges facing practising engineers, in terms of the need to address not only technological change, but also the social, economic, environmental and sustainability aspects of engineering endeavours. This paper argues that engineering education is approached in terms of engineering science with an overemphasis on theoretical, scientific and technical aspects of engineering, at the expense of the development of capability in dealing with engineering problems in an increasingly complex world, and answering to an increasingly diverse range of stakeholders. The paper further argues that the emphasis on research in universities, and on promotion by research at the expense of teaching, is further exacerbating this inability of engineering academia to adapt to new methods of teaching that will result in the consideration of these wider perspectives of engineering in context. The paper suggests some ways forward, including a focus on industry placements for staff, and overseas experience for students in real engineering projects of benefit to the third world.

Educating Engineers for the 21st Century

Traditional methods of movement assessment in clinical rehab are often labor intensive and provide a limited number of outcome variables for tracking recovery. Entry level virtual reality (VR) systems afford new possibilities for systematic assessment and treatment. This paper describes the development of a virtual tabletop environment for the assessment of upper limb function in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The system is designed to present realistic virtual workspaces and to measure performance at both a functional and kinematic level. In addition, we incorporate the use of Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) as a means of integrating performance with the workspace. Unlike top-end movement analysis systems, the experimental system utilizes readily available computing technologies: mid-range PC, LCD panels, stereo camera, Virtools software, and TUI enabled by Wii Remote, Wii Sensor Bar (Nintendo?) and passive markers. The combination of vision-based marker tracking with a low cost game controller (viz Wii system) provides a stable and accurate means of tracking the TUI on the virtual workspace, and for interactivity within this space. The system provides a compelling sense of realism for the performer and an innovative means of assessing movement capabilities over time.

/pdf/a-virtual-tabletop-workspace-for-the-assessment-of-upper-2od0dg54n1.pdf

A virtual tabletop workspace for the assessment of upper limb function in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

A new adaptive system has been designed to improve patient-controlled analgesia through the use of a variable bolus dose and a variable background infusion of analgesic. A novel hand set allows patients to rate their own pain on a linear scale of 1 to 10. Data derived from the hand set signals are used by an expert algorithm to repeatedly adapt the drug dosage of the bolus and of the background infusion according to both current pain intensity and the patient’s response to previous dosage. To test the system, we performed a small pilot clinical study, using a randomized, double-blinded, cross-over design. The new system was alternated with a conventional system every 12 h. Use of the new system was associated with significantly lower pain scores and fewer bolus requests but more analgesic administration, though without increased adverse effects. It was very well accepted by both patients and clinical staff. Implications: Pain relief after surgery is often best provided by patient-controlled analgesia, which uses an IV infusion pump and a patient-activated switch. We have developed a new computer-controlled or “smart” patient-controlled analgesia that rapidly learns a patient’s individual needs and provides continuously tailored pain relief. (Anesth Analg 1999;89:1226 ‐32)

Smart technology improves patient-controlled analgesia: a preliminary report.

Deficits in upper limb function are common among patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Accordingly, new technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), are being developed to further upper limb rehabilitation. The study described here successfully trialed a table-top VR-based system (called Elements). Two patients with TBI participated in case-studies using a multiple-baseline, AB time-sequence design; the intervention consisted of 12 1-hour sessions. Performance was measured on both system-rated measures and standardized tests of functional skill. Time-sequence plots for each patient were first sight inspected for trends; this was followed by split-middle trend analysis. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in their movement accuracy, efficiency, and bimanual dexterity; and mixed improvement on speed and other measures of movement skill. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the Elements system facilitated motor learning in both TBI patients. Larger scale clinical trials are now deemed a viable step in further validating the system.

/pdf/a-virtual-tabletop-workspace-for-upper-limb-rehabilitation-2leuaopbh7.pdf

Heiko Rudolph

Papers

Hierarchical routing protocols for wireless sensor network: a compressive survey

Educating Engineers for the 21st Century

A virtual tabletop workspace for the assessment of upper limb function in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Smart technology improves patient-controlled analgesia: a preliminary report.

A virtual tabletop workspace for upper-limb rehabilitation in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): A multiple case study evaluation