Ontologies as means for conceptualizing and structuring domain knowledge within a community of interest are seen as a key to realize the Semantic Web vision. However, the decentralized nature of the Web makes achieving consensus across communities difficult, thus, hampering efficient knowledge sharing between them. To address this problem of heterogeneity we propose a Categorization Framework (...

Today, the development of embedded and in particular safety-critical – systems in general follows a customized design approach, resulting in rather isolated applications and little reuse of components and code across different application domains. For instance, in modern cars sub-systems like power-train control, advanced driver assistance systems or the body electronic co-exist, each equipped ...

Today’s networks are overly complex, partly due to an increasing variety of proprietary, fixed-function appliances that are unable to deliver the agility and economics needed to address constantly changing market requirements. This is because network elements have traditionally been optimized for high packet throughput at the expense of flexibility, thus hampering the development and deployment...

–The investigation of continuum robots has become an area of considerable interest in the last several years. Unlike conventional robotic manipulators which bend in discrete locations, continuum robots bend over continuous sections. One of the main issues that is hampering research in this area is the determination of the robot’s shape. In this paper we present a shape-determining scheme that i...

The determination of whether purse seine fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific is hampering the recovery of the northeastern offshore spotted dolphin and eastern spinner dolphin populations is a difficult problem. The question was not answered satisfactorily by a simple consideration of population abundance estimates, despite these estimates being made using innovative methods and great care ...

Solvents toxicity is a major limiting factor hampering the cost-effective biotechnological production of chemicals. In Clostridium acetobutylicum, a functionally unknown protein (encoded by SMB_G1518) with a hypothetical alcohol interacting domain was identified. Disruption of SMB_G1518 and/or its downstream gene SMB_G1519 resulted in increased butanol tolerance, while overexpression of SMB_G15...

This article discusses the impact of social representations of ageing, such as breakdown, inevitability of illnesses and unfitness, on chronic illness experience of elderly people in Latvia. The qualitative study is based on theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism and uses grounded theory methodology. The results of the study lead to the conclusion that in Latvia certain social represe...

Patients with missing molars usually present with supraerupted antagonist molars, hampering rehabilitation by prosthesis. In such cases orthodontic intrusion of the supraerupted molar can be considered. There are several modalities for intrusion but active intrusion can be achieved by temporary anchorage devices or TAD’s. Intraorally TAD’s can be placed at various sites in the maxilla such as b...

Fanconi anemia (FA) is an inherited disorder of genomic instability associated with high risk of myelodysplasia and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Young mice deficient in FA core complex genes do not naturally develop cancer, hampering preclinical studies on malignant hematopoiesis in FA. Here we describe that aging Fancc(-/-) mice are prone to genomically unstable AML and other hematologic neop...

This study examines strategic process and export entry choice of small and medium manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The data was collected from a survey of 72 small and mediumsized manufacturers in Nigeria. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, and Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis. Results show that firms’ strategic choice to enter the export market was associated ...