Parametric bitstream-based quality assessment of progressive download and adaptive audiovisual streaming services over reliable transport - Quality integration module

Parametric bitstream-based quality assessment of progressive download and adaptive audiovisual streaming services over reliable transport - Video quality estimation module

Parametric bitstream-based quality assessment of progressive download and adaptive audiovisual streaming services over reliable transport - Audio quality estimation module

Quality and impairment assessment

Smart sustainable city impact assessment

Objective Perceptual Assessment of Video Quality: Full Reference Television

Assessment Framework for Environmental Impacts of the ICT Sector

YSTR.HTSA-overview - Overview of ICT based highway traffic safety assessment

Functional assessment methods for distributed ledger technology platforms

Performance assessment methods for distributed ledger technology platforms

Test suites for assessment of the external universal power adapter solutions for portable information and communication technology devices

Test suites for assessment of the external universal power adapter solutions for stationary information and communication technology devices

Security assessment techniques in telecommunication/information and communication technology networks

Assessment of the LTE circuit switched fall back - Impact on voice quality of service

Holcim Building Envelope offers advice on assessing a roof's condition for the most effective repair options.

This research is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the characteristics that explain a vendor's success in the supply chain demand planning space and helps assess its current and anticipated performance in the marketplace.

UK SMEs are urged to complete a risk assessment, after new research reveals that one third of businesses do not have a policy in place.

Location: Main Library- HV5840.M3B57 2004

Location: Engineering Library- TA147.M39 2016

Location: Electronic Resource- 

Location: Electronic Resource- 

“An assessment night will be held tomorrow [June 27], from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, when candidates can sign up for the next recruit camp, which is planned for July 7 to 19,” the Royal Bermuda Regiment said. A spokesperson said, “Residents are encouraged to attend Warwick Camp this week as the Royal Bermuda Regiment aims to […]

In light of a recent series of fires in high-rise buildings with combustible facades, including the Grenfell tower fire, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has initiated a project to develop a fire risk assessment tool for these types of buildings to assist local authorities globally with fire safety in their communities.

Visual Abstract

Visual Abstract

Sean A Burnap
Dec 7, 2020; 0:RA120.002305v1-mcp.RA120.002305
Research

We have previously shown that multimers of plasma pentraxin-3 (PTX3) were predictive of survival in patients with sepsis. To characterize the release kinetics and cellular source of plasma protein changes in sepsis, serial samples were obtained from healthy volunteers (n=10, 3 time-points) injected with low-dose endotoxin (LPS) and analyzed using data-independent acquisition (DIA) MS. The human plasma proteome response was compared to an LPS-induced endotoxemia model in mice. Proteomic analysis of human plasma revealed a rapid neutrophil degranulation signature, followed by a rise in acute phase proteins. Changes in circulating PTX3 correlated with increases in neutrophil-derived proteins following LPS injection. Time course analysis of the plasma proteome in mice showed a time-dependent increase in multimeric PTX3, alongside increases in neutrophil-derived myeloperoxidase (MPO) upon LPS treatment. The mechanisms of oxidation-induced multimerisation of PTX3 were explored in two genetic mouse models: MPO global knock-out mice and LysM CreNox2KO mice, in which NADPH oxidase 2 (Nox2) is only deficient in myeloid cells. Nox2 is the enzyme responsible for the oxidative burst in neutrophils. Increases in plasma multimeric PTX3 were not significantly different between wildtype and MPO or LysM CreNox2KO knock-out mice. Thus, PTX3 may already be stored and released in a multimeric form. Through in vivo neutrophil depletion and multiplexed vascular proteomics, PTX3 multimer deposition within the aorta was confirmed to be neutrophil-dependent. Proteomic analysis of aortas from LPS-injected mice returned PTX3 as the most upregulated protein, where multimeric PTX3 was deposited as early as 2 h post-LPS along with other neutrophil-derived proteins. In conclusion, the rise in multimeric PTX3 upon LPS injection correlates with neutrophil-related protein changes in plasma and in aortas. MPO and myeloid Nox2 are not required for the multimerisation of PTX3; instead, neutrophil extravasation is responsible for the LPS-induced deposition of multimeric PTX3 in the aorta.

Proportionality in the Conduct of Hostilities: The Incidental Harm Side of the Assessment Research paper sysadmin 6 December 2018

Clarification of international humanitarian law is important in ensuring compliance with the rule of proportionality, but a culture of compliance within armed forces and groups is also crucial.

Summary

• Military operations are taking place with increasing frequency in densely populated areas. Such operations result in loss of life and harm to civilians, as well as damage to civilian objects, (including infrastructure providing essential services). In order to protect civilians, it is imperative that armed forces and groups comply with the rules of international humanitarian law on the conduct of hostilities, including the rule of proportionality.
• The rule of proportionality prohibits attacks which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. This research paper analyses the key steps that belligerents must take to give effect to the rule, with a particular focus on one side of proportionality assessments – the expected incidental harm.
• Those undertaking proportionality assessments before or during an attack must consider whether the expected harm will be caused by the attack, and whether that harm could be expected (that is, was it reasonably foreseeable).
• For the purpose of proportionality assessments, injury to civilians includes disease, and there is no reason in principle to exclude mental harm, even though it is currently challenging to identify and quantify it. Damage to civilian objects includes damage to elements of the natural environment.
• Once the incidental harm to be considered has been identified, a value or weight must be assigned to it. This is then balanced against the value or weight of the military advantage anticipated from the attack to determine whether the harm would be excessive.
• In the determination of whether the expected incidental harm would be excessive compared to the anticipated military advantage, ‘excessive’ is a wide but not indeterminate standard.
• Belligerents should develop methodologies so that those planning and deciding attacks are provided with all necessary information on expected incidental harm, and to assist them in assigning weight to the incidental harm to be considered.
• If it becomes apparent that the rule of proportionality will be contravened, the attack in question must be cancelled or suspended.
• Clarification of the law is important in ensuring compliance with the rule of proportionality, but a culture of compliance within armed forces and groups, inculcated by their leaders, is also crucial.

The Chatham House Sustainable Laboratories Initiative: Prior Assessment Tool Other resource sysadmin 14 June 2019

Laboratories are critical for supporting effective infectious disease surveillance and outbreak response. This tool is meant to help structure a conversation between funding partners and recipient countries on how to most effectively establish or repurpose laboratories in low-resource environments.

Introduction

Laboratories are critical for supporting effective infectious disease surveillance and outbreak response, and lack of adequate laboratory capacity is a global challenge. As part of global health security initiatives, cooperative threat reduction efforts and international development programmes, sophisticated laboratories have been provided to mitigate biological threats and bolster a country’s capacity for detection, diagnosis and storage of high-consequence pathogens. Very often, these use the assumptions, standards and templates applied in high-income countries. However, it can be difficult or even impossible to sustain these facilities in low-resource environments. There can sometimes be limited local technical capacity and capability, which can result in a high reliance on imported expertise, skills, equipment and other resources. Sustainability can therefore be hard to achieve. In addition, when a funding partner withdraws, the laboratories can become disused, foundering without the trained personnel and financial resources to sustain them.

To help address this situation, a proposal gaining increasing support internationally is to adopt an approach based on a local risk assessment, whereby laboratories are appropriately and optimally tailored to the local risks and to the resources available, both in the short and longer term, without compromising biosafety and biosecurity.

A Chatham House workshop was convened in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2018 to explore what West African countries would find most appropriate in terms of building laboratory capacity, what the main challenges have been so far, and what needs to be done to improve the sustainability of laboratories in the region. It emerged that there was a need for a more structured conversation between the funding partner and recipient country early in the process – prior to embarking on the detailed planning phase for the establishment or repurposing of a laboratory. This should involve careful consideration and an assessment of existing and planned capacity, needs and contextual issues, together with proposals for how to address the issues revealed, so that any ensuing laboratory demonstrably supports the national strategy and therefore flourishes.

Massachusetts is the fifth state to join the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority created through the Every Student Succeeds Act, which allows states to experiment with new forms of testing.

Utah education officials have abruptly canceled a $44 million contract with a Minnesota-based standardized-testing company amid a flurry of technological glitches that have created uncertainty about whether this year's test scores will be validated.

Georgia wants to allow districts to use a series of "formative assessments" instead of one big test at the end of the year.

Although public and educators' concerns are growing about testing, performance assessment done well can strengthen instruction and enhance learning, says Linda Darling-Hammond.

States are developing new forms of assessment, including assessments of learning and assessments for learning.

A recent summit meeting on assessment held in Virginia by Jobs for the Future suggests that that state may have solved some of the political challenges that have held back the advance of performance assessment.

The state will be allowed to use competency-based tests developed by local and state officials, trying them out with a handful of districts in lieu of statewide tests.

Performance assessments have the potential to ensure that instruction for students with disabilities is aligned with state standards.

Further to Council-endorsed adjustments to the 2016-17 Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) made in 2015, an assessment of the technical capacity of the Organization by a team of independent [...]

Penn State’s Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research has designated its inaugural cohort of Assessment Champions for 2024-25. This new program recognizes individuals who are deeply committed to enhancing student learning through learning assessment.

"When the day came to administer the first test I had designed," writes Brandon Lewis, "my heart sank."

Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.

As the two big groups of states craft common-assessment systems, experts warn that the smallest details could undermine their work.

The collection and use of data about just how prepared individual children are to enter kindergarten can be a ticklish proposition.

Dover, Del. February 21, 2023 – Now through Friday, March 31, the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) invites all residents to complete a confidential housing survey that will guide housing agencies and local jurisdictions in their efforts to:  Prioritize housing and housing-related services, Develop more targeted program and policy responses, and Better coordinate the use […]

Government officials and community members gather in Dover to learn of qualitative, quantitative, and projection data to solve the housing crisis Dover, Del. October 10, 2023 – Delawareans, including government officials, nonprofit and for-profit partners, and service providers, joined the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) at POLYTECH Adult Education Center to hear preliminary findings from the […]

The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) will conduct a series of community health assessments to better understand the concerns and needs of Delaware communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and to improve the overall health in Delaware in the future.