Microcomputer memory performance in a resource sharing distributed information processing environment

The occupational use of video display terminals (VDTs) has been associated with the increasing incidence of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders, often called cumulative trauma disorders. To guide clinical and policy decisions about the prevention and treatment of these VDT related disorders, valid and economic measures of total daily VDT use and VDT related job tasks such as data entry or editing will be important. In this study of newspaper reporters and copy editors (n = 83), VDT use was measured with employee self reports and by sampling the work behaviors of a subsample of employees. Behavioral sampling estimated VDT use as a characteristic of the job as opposed to a characteristic of individual employee performance. Overall, the two techniques of measuring occupational VDT use compared favorably, with the exception that self reported hours of VDT use tended to exceed the hours of use estimated by behavioral observation for employees who were younger and those who reported greater job demands. The findings suggest that behavioral sampling is a valid technique for estimating VDT use as a job characteristic.

ObjectiveTo investigate the use of video display terminal (VDT) in high-altitude regions by medical students and the resulted risk factors of eye discomfort.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 686 medical students randomly selected from high-altitude regions, Kunming, Yunnan Province. The prevalence of video display terminal syndrome (VDTs) and related risk factors in medical students were analyzed by instructing students to fill in the eye discomfort symptom questionnaire [Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) scale].ResultsThere were 686 participants in this study, including 213 males (31.0%) and 473 females (69.0%). The results of questionnaire survey showed that 184 patients (26.8%) didn't have eye discomfort symptoms and 502 patients (73.2%) had eye discomfort symptoms. The comparison of demographic and ocular characteristics of eye discomfort symptoms group and no eye discomfort symptoms group showed that medical students in the group with ocular discomfort symptoms had longer total duration of video terminal use, longer duration of each VDT use, higher total scores of ocular discomfort symptom scores, and a higher percentage of the ocular discomfort severity group, all with statistically significant differences. There was no significant difference in the remaining parameters between the two groups of participants. The results of multivariate logistic regression model analysis showed that the relationship between total sleep time, total duration of VDT use and eye discomfort symptom score was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Besides, ordinal logistic regression was applied further to investigate related factors of the severity of eye discomfort. The model demonstrated that total sleep duration and total VDT using duration were significantly associated with the severity of eye discomfort symptom (P < 0.05).The severity of eye discomfort symptom was significantly negatively related to the increased total sleep duration and it was significantly positively related to the increased VDT use duration.ConclusionThe prevalence of VDTs is high in medical students at high-altitude regions. The longer total duration of daily use of VDT and shorter sleep duration are risk factors associated with VDTs. The severity of eye discomfort symptom was significantly negatively related to the increased total sleep duration and it was significantly positively related to the increased total VDT using duration.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among employees of a large newspaper company (1) to define the type of ocular and somatic complaints reported by video display terminal (VDT) users and to identify their relationship to VDT use, (2) to determine the association between symptoms and the participants' adequacy of correction of refractive errors for their jobs, and (3) to assess the prevalence of eye abnormalities, especially cataracts, and their relationship to VDT use. Poor visual clarity of the VDT screen explained the plurality of work-associated symptoms. These associations were independent of the effects of potential confounding variables. The relationships with headaches associated with work and changes in visual function were replicated in a small, independent sample. One qualitative and two quantitative VDT-use variables that suggested lesser skill or experience were associated with headaches. No meaningful relationship was found between adequacy of the participants' refractions, including the wearing of glasses with bi-or multifocal lenses, and the reporting of work-associated symptoms. No significant association was found between VDT use and the prevalence of eye abnormalities, including cataracts.

We aimed to evaluate the effect of warming eyelids on tear-film stability and quality of life (QoL) in video display terminal (VDT) users. A prospective study was conducted and 45 volunteers with ocular symptoms and tear-film instability associated with VDT use were randomly allocated into the study (n = 22) or control groups (n = 23). Subjects in the study group used eyelid warming steamer (EWS) for 2 weeks and tear fluorescein breakup time (TBUT) after single and 2-week EWS treatment, Schirmer I test, ocular surface staining scores, meibomian gland assessment, severity of dry eye disease (DED) and QoL scores after 2-week EWS treatment were analysed. The TBUT improved after both single and 2-week EWS treatment (P = 0.023 and 0.027, respectively) in the study group. The ocular surface staining scores were significantly decreased only in the study group (P = 0.038). About 60% DED patients in the study group shifted towards non-DED and the pattern of distribution was significantly different compared to baseline (P < 0.001). The QoL scores significantly improved in the study group (P = 0.002) with a negative correlation with TBUT. In conclusion, in VDT users with short TBUT, eyelid warming steamer is effective in improving tear-film stability and QoL.

Changes in postural risk and general health associated with a participatory ergonomics education program used by heavy video display terminal users: A pilot study

Clusters of spontaneous abortion among video display terminal (VDT) users in North America and Canada in the late 1970s aroused suspicion about the potential risk of an association between VDT. exposure and pregnancy outcome. This case-control study considered the association between VDT use and the risk of miscarriage. Cases were 508 women admitted for spontaneous abortion to the Clinica Luigi Mangiagalli and a network of obstetric departments in the Milan area. Controls were 1,148 women who gave birth at term to healthy infants on randomly selected days at the same hospitals where cases were identified. No association emerged between VDT exposure and spontaneous abortion, the estimated odds ratio being 1.0 (95% CI: 0.8-1.2). This evidence agrees with studies conducted in different countries by various authors.

Statistical cartography, the production of statistical maps, has been widely used in fields such as medicine, geophysics, criminology, linguistics, and biology to address questions concerning the spatial distribution of phenomena. Recent advances in computer hardware and software have made it possible to produce statistical maps rapidly and economically. Few applications of the methodology in special ecuation research and planning have yet surfaced, however. The article describes the basic methods and procedures of computerized statistical cartography and provides several suggestions for its application in special education research and planning, both state and national. A study of regional low-incidence handicap service patterns is presented. Included are examples of special education service maps produced by computer.

: Recent advances in computer hardware and networking technology have incited the deployment of wide-area streaming media services in the Internet. While such efforts as video-on-demand are largely limited to unidirectional delivery of content to the desktop, synchronously interactive group-oriented application services are foreseeable. In such applications, users collaborate on a shared workspace and freely exchange information in real-time under the premise of coordination and conflict freedom. Telecollaborative applications such as telemedicine or distance learning may profit from such coordination services. Ultimately, group coordination allows for groupware-style computing at Internet scope. The current IP-multicast framework contains provisions for group membership control and reliable dissemination services, however, it lacks support for group coordination. In this paper, we present a framework on network control and coordination functions to orchestrate synchronous multimedia groupwork. Our goal is to achieve a better understanding of the group coordination problem as an important component of future Internet multimedia collaboration tools.

Eyes are the windows to the soul. Ayurvedic classical texts have mentioned about eye and its diseases since Vedic and Samhita kala, thus showing the importance of eye and ways to protect it. That is why eye care has been one of the priorities since the ages. In Ayurveda clinical features related to Dry eye are generally seen in Suskaksipaka. Over use of Video Display Terminals (V.D.T) like Computer, Mobiles, and Television &amp; faulty lifestyle are some of the causes. Among these disorders, many are related to Indriya (Sensory Organ) especially Caksurindriya (Eye). In metro city, more than 50% cases from ophthalmic OPD are of Dry Eye Syndrome. Dry Eye Syndrome is a common ophthalmic condition, in its real sense is a problem for eye care practitioners due to its variegated etiologies, multi factorial physiopathology, lack of gold standard for diagnostic procedure. No curative treatment modalities are available and the palliative measures are inadequate too. It presents a great challenge to physicians. That’s why its prevalence is very high. It is 5% to 35% worldwide, while in India it is 29.25%. Dry Eye Syndrome also known as Kerato-Conjunctivitis Sicca (KCS) is considered a disease of the modern era. Dry eye syndrome, one of the most frequently encountered ocular morbidities, a growing public health problem and one of the most common conditions seen by the eye care practitioners. Tear secretion provides continuous moisture and lubrication on the ocular surface and provides oxygen to the corneal- epithelium. When the normal tear production is compromised, it leads to dry eyes.

Power grid planning and operation decisions are made based on simulation of the dynamic behavior of the system. Enabling substantial energy savings while increasing the reliability of the aging North American power grid through improved utilization of existing transmission assets hinges on the adoption of wide-area measurement systems (WAMS) for power system stabilization. However, adoption of WAMS alone will not suffice if the power system is to reach its full entitlement in stability and reliability. It is necessary to enhance predictability with "faster than real-time" dynamic simulations that will enable the dynamic stability margins, proactive real-time control, and improve grid resiliency to fast time-scale phenomena such as cascading network failures. Present-day dynamic simulations are performed only during offline planning studies, considering only worst case conditions such as summer peak, winter peak days, etc. With widespread deployment of renewable generation, controllable loads, energy storage devices and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles expected in the near future and greater integration of cyber infrastructure (communications, computation and control), monitoring and controlling the dynamic performance of the grid in real-time would become increasingly important. The state-of-the-art dynamic simulation tools have limited computational speed and are not suitable for real-time applications, given the large set of contingency conditions to be evaluated. These tools are optimized for best performance of single-processor computers, but the simulation is still several times slower than real-time due to its computational complexity. With recent significant advances in numerical methods and computational hardware, the expectations have been rising towards more efficient and faster techniques to be implemented in power system simulators. This is a natural expectation, given that the core solution algorithms of most commercial simulators were developed decades ago, when High Performance Computing (HPC) resources were not commonly available.

Protein Folding Landscapes for Alpha- and Beta-Miniproteins Using All-Atom Simulations with an Optimized Force-Field

Natural soil deposits such as carbonate sands in the marine environment may show an effective cohesion due to intergranular solid bridges formed by calcareous precipitation. Such cementation effect endows the granular material with the ability to resist some degree of tensile stress in addition to the compressive and shearing resistance proper of uncemented frictional sands. tensile resistance of such materials may be quantified based on measures of debonding force at the micro-scale and using appropriate homogenization techniques. However, it is still a challenge to assess the influence of solid intergranular cohesion on the mechanical behaviour of soils in many practical engineering problems. Recent advances both in computational hardware and parallelization strategies make it nowadays possible to address such problems from a micromechanical perspective. Here we introduce a simple model for solid cohesion and its implementation within a 3D discrete element framework. The model involves a classical viscoelastic bond rheology and specific debonding modes for tensile, shearing, bending and torsional solicitations. We finally present a calibration of the model to match experimental data from an artificial granular soil made out of cemented glass beads and a validation of the approach with a macro-mechanical application.

The recent advances in hardware and enabling software technologies are having profound effect on the development of UI tools for building database applications.In this tutorial, we will first give a historical account of the evolution of DB UI tools since the early seventies in terms of database models, database languages, database development tools (Visual 4GL), and end user graphical tools. As the users of SQL were primarily application developers, the tools were built directed to this clientele. Therefore, the design factors for building programmers' tools were focused on increasing their productivity.Advent of PC database management systems, saw the metamorphism of this clientele to less sophisticated users. These non-programmers (i.e., power users) who wish to build their applications required different kinds of tools and the PC database industry lead this thrust. We address the design factors in both these types of tools and contrast them.In doing the above, we will review and compare some of the current environments in terms of their power, functionality, levels of abstraction and ease of use. This will include, but is not limited to, such products or research prototypes as: Paradox, Access, 4GL Windows, PowerSoft, Prograph, ICBE (being prototyped at HP Labs).Finally, we will extrapolate on how this UI technology will be evolving in the future specifically into the areas of entertainment and mobile personal appliances.

Systems that operate in dangerous environments are becoming essential in case of emergencies. This survey reviews the latest ground reconnaissance robots using computer vision (CV), machine learning (ML), MCU-based control, LoRa communication, DC motors, and dual-power systems. The analysis includes hardware and algorithms, and their performance in the field and lab. There has been clear progress in navigation, sensor fusion, and situational awareness. The main challenges which remain include the use of energy and standardization of benchmarks. This survey focuses exclusively on Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) for disaster reconnaissance, examining recent advances in hardware, software, and autonomy. The survey highlights the improvements in navigation, sensor fusion, and intelligence, and identifies remaining challenges such as energy limitations, robustness in harsh conditions, and the lack of standardized benchmarks. The analysis synthesizes findings from over 190 recent studies (2020-2025) in ground-based disaster robotics, providing a comprehensive overview of current capabilities and research gaps. It encapsulates all issues with their remedy for future disaster-response systems.

The recent advances in hardware and software has led to development of applications generating a large amount of data in real-time. To keep abreast with latest trends, learning algorithms need to incorporate novel data continuously. One of the efficient ways is revising the existing knowledge so as to save time and memory. In this paper, we proposed an incremental algorithm for Bayesian network structure learning. It could deal with high dimensional domains, where whole dataset is not completely available, but grows continuously. Our algorithm learns local models by limiting search space and performs a constrained greedy hill-climbing search to obtain a global model. We evaluated our method on different datasets having several hundreds of variables, in terms of performance and accuracy. The empirical evaluation shows that our method is significantly better than existing state of the art methods and justifies its effectiveness for incremental use.