A novel optical gating method for laser gated imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Ginat, Ran; Schneider, Ron; Zohar, Eyal; Nesher, Ofer

2013-06-01

For the past 15 years, Elbit Systems is developing time-resolved active laser-gated imaging (LGI) systems for various applications. Traditional LGI systems are based on high sensitive gated sensors, synchronized to pulsed laser sources. Elbit propriety multi-pulse per frame method, which is being implemented in LGI systems, improves significantly the imaging quality. A significant characteristic of the LGI is its ability to penetrate a disturbing media, such as rain, haze and some fog types. Current LGI systems are based on image intensifier (II) sensors, limiting the system in spectral response, image quality, reliability and cost. A novel propriety optical gating module was developed in Elbit, untying the dependency of LGI system on II. The optical gating module is not bounded to the radiance wavelength and positioned between the system optics and the sensor. This optical gating method supports the use of conventional solid state sensors. By selecting the appropriate solid state sensor, the new LGI systems can operate at any desired wavelength. In this paper we present the new gating method characteristics, performance and its advantages over the II gating method. The use of the gated imaging systems is described in a variety of applications, including results from latest field experiments.

Influence of range-gated intensifiers on underwater imaging system SNR

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xia; Hu, Ling; Zhi, Qiang; Chen, Zhen-yue; Jin, Wei-qi

2013-08-01

Range-gated technology has been a hot research field in recent years due to its high effective back scattering eliminating. As a result, it can enhance the contrast between a target and its background and extent the working distance of the imaging system. The underwater imaging system is required to have the ability to image in low light level conditions, as well as the ability to eliminate the back scattering effect, which means that the receiver has to be high-speed external trigger function, high resolution, high sensitivity, low noise, higher gain dynamic range. When it comes to an intensifier, the noise characteristics directly restrict the observation effect and range of the imaging system. The background noise may decrease the image contrast and sharpness, even covering the signal making it impossible to recognize the target. So it is quite important to investigate the noise characteristics of intensifiers. SNR is an important parameter reflecting the noise features of a system. Through the use of underwater laser range-gated imaging prediction model, and according to the linear SNR system theory, the gated imaging noise performance of the present market adopted super second generation and generation Ⅲ intensifiers were theoretically analyzed. Based on the active laser underwater range-gated imaging model, the effect to the system by gated intensifiers and the relationship between the system SNR and MTF were studied. Through theoretical and simulation analysis to the image intensifier background noise and SNR, the different influence on system SNR by super second generation and generation Ⅲ ICCD was obtained. Range-gated system SNR formula was put forward, and compared the different effect influence on the system by using two kind of ICCDs was compared. According to the matlab simulation, a detailed analysis was carried out theoretically. All the work in this paper lays a theoretical foundation to further eliminating back scattering effect, improving

The East Garrington Trench and Gate system: it works

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bowles, M.; Rimbey, S.; Bentley, L.; Thomas, D.; Hoyne, B.

1997-01-01

A 'trench and gate' system (a modification of the 'funnel and gate' system) has been installed at the Amoco-operated East Garrington gas plant in Alberta to provide long-term remediation for treating contaminated groundwater plumes hosted by low hydraulic conductivity sediments. Modification to the funnel and gate design includes an up gradient high hydraulic conductivity trench and a down gradient infiltration gallery which was found to be effective in biodegrading BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) compounds. A comprehensive monitoring program was set up to characterize the groundwater flow system. Several indigenous hydrocarbon degrading organisms have been identified. It was shown that locally, under aerobic conditions, phosphorus was the limiting nutrient. 13 refs., 3 tabs., 10 figs

Audiologist-patient communication profiles in hearing rehabilitation appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Carly; Barr, Caitlin; Khan, Asaduzzaman; Hickson, Louise

2017-08-01

To profile the communication between audiologists and patients in initial appointments on a biomedical-psychosocial continuum; and explore the associations between these profiles and 1) characteristics of the appointment and 2) patients' decisions to pursue hearing aids. Sixty-three initial hearing assessment appointments were filmed and audiologist-patient communication was coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. A hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted to profile audiologist-patient communication, after which regression modelling and Chi-squared analyses were conducted. Two distinct audiologist-patient communication profiles were identified during both the history taking phase (46=biopsychosocial profile, 15=psychosocial profile) and diagnosis and management planning phase (45=expanded biomedical profile, 11=narrowly biomedical profile). Longer appointments were significantly more likely to be associated with an expanded biomedical interaction during the diagnosis and management planning phase. No significant associations were found between audiologist-patient communication profile and patients' decisions to pursue hearing aids. Initial audiology consultations appear to remain clinician-centred. Three quarters of appointments began with a biopsychosocial interaction; however, 80% ended with an expanded biomedical interaction. Findings suggest that audiologists could consider modifying their communication in initial appointments to more holistically address the needs of patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Appointment breaking: causes and solutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Bean, A G; Talaga, J

1992-12-01

From a review of research on health care appointment breaking, the authors find that patient demographic characteristics, psychosocial problems, previous appointment keeping, health beliefs, and situational factors predict no-show behavior. Suggestions are offered for designing the marketing mix to increase patient appointment keeping. Methods for mitigating the negative effects of no-shows on health care providers are described.

38 CFR 13.55 - Veterans Service Center Manager to select and appoint or recommend for appointment the person or...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Manager to select and appoint or recommend for appointment the person or legal entity to receive....55 Veterans Service Center Manager to select and appoint or recommend for appointment the person or.... The Veterans Service Center Manager is authorized to select and appoint (or in the case of a court...

Approximate dynamic programming approaches for appointment scheduling with patient preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xin; Wang, Jin; Fung, Richard Y K

2018-04-01

During the appointment booking process in out-patient departments, the level of patient satisfaction can be affected by whether or not their preferences can be met, including the choice of physicians and preferred time slot. In addition, because the appointments are sequential, considering future possible requests is also necessary for a successful appointment system. This paper proposes a Markov decision process model for optimizing the scheduling of sequential appointments with patient preferences. In contrast to existing models, the evaluation of a booking decision in this model focuses on the extent to which preferences are satisfied. Characteristics of the model are analysed to develop a system for formulating booking policies. Based on these characteristics, two types of approximate dynamic programming algorithms are developed to avoid the curse of dimensionality. Experimental results suggest directions for further fine-tuning of the model, as well as improving the efficiency of the two proposed algorithms. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Designing cyclic appointment schedules for outpatient clinics with scheduled and unscheduled patient arrivals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kortbeek, Nikky; Zonderland, Maartje E.; Braaksma, Aleida; Vliegen, Ingrid M. H.; Boucherie, Richard J.; Litvak, Nelly; Hans, Erwin W.

2014-01-01

We present a methodology to design appointment systems for outpatient clinics and diagnostic facilities that offer both walk-in and scheduled service. The developed blueprint for the appointment schedule prescribes the number of appointments to plan per day and the moment on the day to schedule the

Designing cyclic appointment schedules for outpatient clinics with scheduled and unscheduled patient arrivals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kortbeek, Nikky; Zonderland, Maartje Elisabeth; Boucherie, Richardus J.; Litvak, Nelli; Hans, Elias W.

2011-01-01

We present a methodology to design appointment systems for outpatient clinics and diagnostic facilities that offer both walk-in and scheduled service. The developed blueprint for the appointment schedule prescribes the number of appointments to plan per day and the moment on the day to schedule the

On appointment of Courts presidents - some open questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mijo Galiot

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In their paper, the authors analyse the legal position of the judiciary within the framework of the separation of powers in the Republic of Croatia, as well as the procedure of the election of the members and president, and the scope and manner of operation of the State Judiciary Council on a principal level. The authors especially deal with and analyse the 2010 constitutional changes and the State Judiciary Council Act from 2010 (SJCA, which introduced significant novelties in the appointment of presidents of courts in the normative and institutional sense as well as in practical applications. Separately, an integral historical overview is given of the appointment of presidents of courts from the gaining of Croatian independency until the SJCA became effective, as well as a comparative overview of the manner of appointment of presidents of courts in elected, related European legal systems. Moreover, the authors break down and analyse the procedures of the appointment of presidents of courts with a special reference to each phase. Here, special emphasis is given to the candidate valuation manner and criteria and the legal protection of candidates after the decision on appointment, both in the normative sense and in practice, all this accompanied by authors’ suggestions de lege ferenda.

"Nudge" and the epidemic of missed appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Aggarwal, Ajay; Davies, Joanna; Sullivan, Richard

2016-06-20

Purpose - Missed appointments constitute a significant problem in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and this remains an area where improvements could yield substantial efficiency savings. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that nudge policies based on behavioural theories may help target interventions to improve patient motivation to attend appointments. Design/methodology/approach - The authors propose two policies to reduce missed appointments. The first attempts to empower patients through making the appointment system more individualised to them and utilising their intrinsic feelings of social responsibility. The second policy utilises a financial commitment given by the patient at the time of booking. The different mechanisms of influencing patient behaviour are based on two different views of what motivates individuals' actions. The first policy is based on individuals being "knights". They are altruistic and have well-intentioned values. The second policy option is constructed on the premise that an individual is governed by self-interest, and they are in fact "knaves". Findings - A policy, which avoids the use of financial penalties is likely to be more culturally acceptable within the NHS. It could also prevent the phenomenon of "crowding out" whereby the desire to act dutifully gets displaced by the motivation to avoid incurring a monetary fine. Originality/value - Testing both strategies would provide insight into patient attitudes towards health care and society. This would help optimise behavioural strategies which may influence not only appointment attendances but also have wider implications for encouraging rational health care consumption.

Catheter-based time-gated near-infrared fluorescence/OCT imaging system

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Yuankang; Abran, Maxime; Cloutier, Guy; Lesage, Frédéric

2018-02-01

We developed a new dual-modality intravascular imaging system based on fast time-gated fluorescence intensity imaging and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) for the purpose of interventional detection of atherosclerosis. A pulsed supercontinuum laser was used for fluorescence and OCT imaging. A double-clad fiber (DCF)- based side-firing catheter was designed and fabricated to have a 23 μm spot size at a 2.2 mm working distance for OCT imaging. Its single-mode core is used for OCT, while its inner cladding transports fluorescence excitation light and collects fluorescent photons. The combination of OCT and fluorescence imaging was achieved by using a DCF coupler. For fluorescence detection, we used a time-gated technique with a novel single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) working in an ultra-fast gating mode. A custom-made delay chip was integrated in the system to adjust the delay between the excitation laser pulse and the SPAD gate-ON window. This technique allowed to detect fluorescent photons of interest while rejecting most of the background photons, thus leading to a significantly improved signal to noise ratio (SNR). Experiments were carried out in turbid media mimicking tissue with an indocyanine green (ICG) inclusion (1 mM and 100 μM) to compare the time-gated technique and the conventional continuous detection technique. The gating technique increased twofold depth sensitivity, and tenfold SNR at large distances. The dual-modality imaging capacity of our system was also validated with a silicone-based tissue-mimicking phantom.

Technical and dosimetric aspects of respiratory gating using a pressure-sensor motion monitoring system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, X. Allen; Stepaniak, Christopher; Gore, Elizabeth

2006-01-01

This work introduces a gating technique that uses 4DCT to determine gating parameters and to plan gated treatment, and employs a Siemens linear accelerator to deliver the gated treatment. Because of technology incompatibility, the 4DCT scanner (LightSpeed, GE) and the Siemens accelerator require two different motion-monitoring systems. The motion monitoring system (AZ-773V, Anzai Med.) used for the gated delivery utilizes a pressure sensor to detect the external respiratory motion (pressure change) in real time. Another system (RPM, Varian) used for the 4DCT scanner (LightSpeed, GE) is based on an infrared camera to detect motion of external markers. These two motion monitoring systems (RPM and Anzai systems) were found to correlate well with each other. The depth doses and profile measured for gated delivery (with a duty cycle of 25% or 50%) were found to agree within 1.0% with those measured for ungated delivery, indicating that gating did not significantly alter beam characteristics. The measurement verified also that the MU linearity and beam output remained unchanged (within 0.3%). A practical method of using 4DCT to plan a gated treatment was developed. The duty cycle for either phase or amplitude gating can be determined based on 4DCT with consideration of set-up error and delivery efficiency. The close-loop measurement involving the entire gating process (imaging, planning, and delivery) showed that the measured isodose distributions agreed with those intended, validating the accuracy and reliability of the gating technique. Based these observations, we conclude that the gating technique introduced in this work, integrating Siemens linear accelerator and Anzai pressure sensor device with GE/Varian RPM 4DCT, is reliable and effective, and it can be used clinically to account for respiratory motion during radiation therapy

Developments of optical fast-gated imaging systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koehler, H.A.; Kotecki, D.

1984-08-01

Several fast-gated imaging systems to measure ultra-fast single-transient data have been developed for time-resolved imaging of pulsed radiation sources. These systems were designed to achieve image recording times of 1 to 3 ms and dynamic ranges of >200:1 to produce large two-dimensional images (greater than or equal to 10 4 spatial points) of 1 to 2 ns exposure and small two-dimensional images (less than or equal to 200 spatial points) of less than or equal to 0.5 ns exposure. Both MCP intensified solid-state two-dimensional framing cameras and streak camera/solid-state camera systems were used; the framing camera system provides snap shots with high spatial resolution whereas the streak camera system provides for limited spatial points each with high temporal resolution. Applications of these systems include electron-beam, x-ray, gamma-ray, and neutron diagnostics. This report reviews the characteristics of the major components of fast-gated imaging systems developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. System performances are described in view of major experiments, and the diagnostic requirements of new experiments in atomic physics (x-ray lasers) and nuclear physics (fusion) are indicated

5 CFR 9901.511 - Appointing authorities.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9901.511 Administrative Personnel DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND LABOR RELATIONS SYSTEMS (DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE-OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT) DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NATIONAL SECURITY... these authorities will be given career, career conditional, term or temporary appointments in the...

Experimental analysis of flow of ductile cast iron in stream lined gating systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skov-Hansen, Søren Peter; Tiedje, Niels Skat

2008-01-01

Streamlined gating systems have been developed for production of high integrity ductile cast iron parts. Flow of ductile cast iron in streamlined gating systems was studied in glass fronted sand moulds where flow in the gating system and casting was recorded by a digital video camera. These results...... show how the quality of pouring, design of ingates, design of bends and flow over cores influence melt flow and act to determine the quality of the castings....

Eye tracking and gating system for proton therapy of orbital tumors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, Dongho; Yoo, Seung Hoon; Moon, Sung Ho; Yoon, Myonggeun; Lee, Se Byeong; Park, Sung Yong

2012-01-01

Purpose: A new motion-based gated proton therapy for the treatment of orbital tumors using real-time eye-tracking system was designed and evaluated. Methods: We developed our system by image-pattern matching, using a normalized cross-correlation technique with LabVIEW 8.6 and Vision Assistant 8.6 (National Instruments, Austin, TX). To measure the pixel spacing of an image consistently, four different calibration modes such as the point-detection, the edge-detection, the line-measurement, and the manual measurement mode were suggested and used. After these methods were applied to proton therapy, gating was performed, and radiation dose distributions were evaluated. Results: Moving phantom verification measurements resulted in errors of less than 0.1 mm for given ranges of translation. Dosimetric evaluation of the beam-gating system versus nongated treatment delivery with a moving phantom shows that while there was only 0.83 mm growth in lateral penumbra for gated radiotherapy, there was 4.95 mm growth in lateral penumbra in case of nongated exposure. The analysis from clinical results suggests that the average of eye movements depends distinctively on each patient by showing 0.44 mm, 0.45 mm, and 0.86 mm for three patients, respectively. Conclusions: The developed automatic eye-tracking based beam-gating system enabled us to perform high-precision proton radiotherapy of orbital tumors.

Universal quantum gates for photon-atom hybrid systems assisted by bad cavities

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Guan-Yu; Liu, Qian; Wei, Hai-Rui; Li, Tao; Ai, Qing; Deng, Fu-Guo

2016-01-01

We present two deterministic schemes for constructing a CNOT gate and a Toffoli gate on photon-atom and photon-atom-atom hybrid quantum systems assisted by bad cavities, respectively. They are achieved by cavity-assisted photon scattering and work in the intermediate coupling region with bad cavities, which relaxes the difficulty of their implementation in experiment. Also, bad cavities are feasible for fast quantum operations and reading out information. Compared with previous works, our schemes do not need any auxiliary qubits and measurements. Moreover, the schematic setups for these gates are simple, especially that for our Toffoli gate as only a quarter wave packet is used to interact the photon with each of the atoms every time. These atom-cavity systems can be used as the quantum nodes in long-distance quantum communication as their relatively long coherence time is suitable for multi-time operations between the photon and the system. Our calculations show that the average fidelities and efficiencies of our two universal hybrid quantum gates are high with current experimental technology. PMID:27067992

5 CFR 316.402 - Procedures for making temporary appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... appointments. Such appointments are not VRA appointments and do not lead to conversion to career-conditional appointment; (3) Career-conditional appointment under § 315.601, 315.604, 315.605, 315.606, 315.607, 315.608... the General Accounting Office; (6) Appointment under 28 U.S.C. 602 for current and former employees of...

Getting patients in the door: medical appointment reminder preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Crutchfield, Trisha M; Kistler, Christine E

2017-01-01

Between 23% and 34% of outpatient appointments are missed annually. Patients who frequently miss medical appointments have poorer health outcomes and are less likely to use preventive health care services. Missed appointments result in unnecessary costs and organizational inefficiencies. Appointment reminders may help reduce missed appointments; particular types may be more effective than other types. We used a survey with a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to learn why individuals miss appointments and to assess appointment reminder preferences. We enrolled a national sample of adults from an online survey panel to complete demographic and appointment habit questions as well as a 16-task DCE designed in Sawtooth Software's Discover tool. We assessed preferences for four reminder attributes - initial reminder type, arrival of initial reminder, reminder content, and number of reminders. We derived utilities and importance scores. We surveyed 251 adults nationally, with a mean age of 43 (range 18-83) years: 51% female, 84% White, and 8% African American. Twenty-three percent of individuals missed one or more appointments in the past 12 months. Two primary reasons given for missing an appointment include transportation problems (28%) and forgetfulness (26%). Participants indicated the initial reminder type (21%) was the most important attribute, followed by the number of reminders (10%). Overall, individuals indicated a preference for a single reminder, arriving via email, phone call, or text message, delivered less than 2 weeks prior to an appointment. Preferences for reminder content were less clear. The number of missed appointments and reasons for missing appointments are consistent with prior research. Patient-centered appointment reminders may improve appointment attendance by addressing some of the reasons individuals report missing appointments and by meeting patients' needs. Future research is necessary to determine if preferred reminders used in practice

Development of a Compact Range-gated Vision System to Monitor Structures in Low-visibility Environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Yong-Jin; Park, Seung-Kyu; Baik, Sung-Hoon; Kim, Dong-Lyul; Choi, Young-Soo; Jeong, Kyung-Min

2015-01-01

Image acquisition in disaster area or radiation area of nuclear industry is an important function for safety inspection and preparing appropriate damage control plans. So, automatic vision system to monitor structures and facilities in blurred smoking environments such as the places of a fire and detonation is essential. Vision systems can't acquire an image when the illumination light is blocked by disturbance materials, such as smoke, fog and dust. To overcome the imaging distortion caused by obstacle materials, robust vision systems should have extra-functions, such as active illumination through disturbance materials. One of active vision system is a range-gated imaging system. The vision system based on the range-gated imaging system can acquire image data from the blurred and darken light environments. Range-gated imaging (RGI) is a direct active visualization technique using a highly sensitive image sensor and a high intensity illuminant. Currently, the range-gated imaging technique providing 2D and range image data is one of emerging active vision technologies. The range-gated imaging system gets vision information by summing time sliced vision images. In the RGI system, a high intensity illuminant illuminates for ultra-short time and a highly sensitive image sensor is gated by ultra-short exposure time to only get the illumination light. Here, the illuminant illuminates objects by flashing strong light through disturbance materials, such as smoke particles and dust particles. In contrast to passive conventional vision systems, the RGI active vision technology enables operation even in harsh environments like low-visibility smoky environment. In this paper, a compact range-gated vision system is developed to monitor structures in low-visibility environment. The system consists of illumination light, a range-gating camera and a control computer. Visualization experiments are carried out in low-visibility foggy environment to see imaging capability

Development of a Compact Range-gated Vision System to Monitor Structures in Low-visibility Environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahn, Yong-Jin; Park, Seung-Kyu; Baik, Sung-Hoon; Kim, Dong-Lyul; Choi, Young-Soo; Jeong, Kyung-Min [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

Image acquisition in disaster area or radiation area of nuclear industry is an important function for safety inspection and preparing appropriate damage control plans. So, automatic vision system to monitor structures and facilities in blurred smoking environments such as the places of a fire and detonation is essential. Vision systems can't acquire an image when the illumination light is blocked by disturbance materials, such as smoke, fog and dust. To overcome the imaging distortion caused by obstacle materials, robust vision systems should have extra-functions, such as active illumination through disturbance materials. One of active vision system is a range-gated imaging system. The vision system based on the range-gated imaging system can acquire image data from the blurred and darken light environments. Range-gated imaging (RGI) is a direct active visualization technique using a highly sensitive image sensor and a high intensity illuminant. Currently, the range-gated imaging technique providing 2D and range image data is one of emerging active vision technologies. The range-gated imaging system gets vision information by summing time sliced vision images. In the RGI system, a high intensity illuminant illuminates for ultra-short time and a highly sensitive image sensor is gated by ultra-short exposure time to only get the illumination light. Here, the illuminant illuminates objects by flashing strong light through disturbance materials, such as smoke particles and dust particles. In contrast to passive conventional vision systems, the RGI active vision technology enables operation even in harsh environments like low-visibility smoky environment. In this paper, a compact range-gated vision system is developed to monitor structures in low-visibility environment. The system consists of illumination light, a range-gating camera and a control computer. Visualization experiments are carried out in low-visibility foggy environment to see imaging capability.

Appointment scheduling on computer.

Science.gov (United States)

Mercando, A D

1997-07-01

The program is well-written, intuitive, and easy to use once initial data, such as the available appointment slots, has been entered. While the effort may not seem worthwhile initially, the ability to access an office appointment book from several locations simultaneously and the reporting capabilities of the software make MEDSched a useful addition to any busy office practice or clinic. Please send your comments and suggestions to me at adm4@columbia.edu.

One-appointment endodontic therapy: biological considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Louis M; Lin, Jarshen; Rosenberg, Paul A

2007-11-01

The authors conducted a literature review to present the best available biological evidence concerning one-appointment endodontic therapy for asymptomatic teeth with apical periodontitis. Because of recent advances in technology, such as rotary engines and nickel-titanium instruments, some practitioners are performing one-appointment endodontic therapy for asymptomatic teeth with apical periodontitis. The authors reviewed the literature, which revealed only a small number of randomized, controlled clinical trials that have been conducted on one-appointment versus multiple-appointment endodontic therapy. As the apical canal preparation is enlarged, a greater percentage of bacteria is eradicated from infected root canals. In addition, sufficiently large apical root canal enlargement facilitates the delivery of antimicrobial irrigant to the apical portion of the canal. However, an association between positive or negative preobturation root canal culture results and the outcome of endodontic treatment has not been well-established. The best available evidence, based on a systematic literature review, indicates that one-appointment endodontic therapy may be feasible in selected cases of apical periodontitis in asymptomatic teeth. However, additional randomized, controlled clinical trials are required.

25 CFR 11.610 - Appointment of guardians.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Appointment of guardians. 11.610 Section 11.610 Indians... ORDER CODE Domestic Relations § 11.610 Appointment of guardians. The court shall have the jurisdiction to appoint or remove legal guardians for minors and for persons who are incapable of managing their...

Nonattendance to medical specialists’ appointments and its relation to regional environmental and socioeconomic indicators in the Chilean public health system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth Angélica Salinas Rebolledo

2014-10-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION Medical care provided by medical specialists is one of the scarcest resources in the public system. It is costly and difficult to access for the general population. Availability and accessibility of specialized care is related to economic, social and cultural aspects that vary among geographical areas. An aggravating factor for this situation is patients’ failure to appear on the date of their appointment, which is defined as the nonattendance of patients to medical specialist appointments without notice. OBJECTIVES To measure and analyze the phenomenon of nonattendance of patients to medical appointments with specialists in the public healthcare system of Chile and its relationship with environmental and socioeconomic regional indicators. METHODS Ecological design study, using medical care records in the public system and environmental and socioeconomic regional indicators potentially related to the absence of patients, between the years 2005-2010. Poisson regression models with random components were used for assessing associations. RESULTS There is 16.5% of nonattendance of patients, with a range between regions from 8.8 to 20.2%. Nonattendance is higher in the specialties of dermatology, geriatrics and nutrition (20.0%, in children (3.1% more than in adults, in areas with highest indigenous population (RR=1.3, in areas with low diversity of specialties (RR=1.1 and in the months of February, July, November and December (RR>1.1. CONCLUSIONS In Chile, socioeconomic factors and the management of healthcare resources have greater influence on the nonattendance of patients to medical specialists’ appointments than environmental factors; therefore, this phenomenon may be avoidable.

Patients’ Perspective on the Value of Medication Management Appointments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Cruz

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Objectives: There is ongoing concern that psychiatric medication management appointments add little value to care. The present study attempted to address this concern by capturing depressed patients’ views and opinions about the value of psychiatric medication management appointments. Methods: Seventy-eight semi-structured interviews were performed with white and African American depressed patients post medication management appointments. These interviews tapped patients’ views and opinions about the value of attending medication management appointments. Analysis: An iterative thematic analysis was performed. Findings: Patients reported greater appointment value when appointments included obtaining medications, discussing the need for medication changes or dose adjustments, and discussing the impact of medications on their illness. Additionally, greater appointment value was perceived by patients when there were non-medical conversations about life issues, immediate outcomes from the appointment such as motivation to continue in care, and specific qualities of providers that were appealing to patients. Conclusions: Patients’ perceived value of psychiatric medication management appointments is complex. Though important patient outcomes are obtaining medicine and perceiving improvement in their mental health, there are other valued appointment and provider factors. Some of these other valued factors embedded within medication management appointments could have therapeutic properties. These findings have implications for future clinical research and service delivery.

Terminal Appointment System Design by Non-stationary M(t)/Ek/c(t) Queueing Model and Genetic Algorithm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Gang; Govindan, Kannan; Yang, Zhong-Zhen

2013-01-01

Long truck queue is a common problem at big marine container terminals, where the resources and equipment are usually scheduled to serve ships prior to trucks. To reduce truck queues, some container terminals adopt terminal appointment system (TAS) to manage truck arrivals. This paper addresses two...

Predicting appointment misses in hospitals using data analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Karpagam, Sylvia; Ma, Nang Laik

2017-01-01

Background There is growing attention over the last few years about non-attendance in hospitals and its clinical and economic consequences. There have been several studies documenting the various aspects of non-attendance in hospitals. Project Predicting Appoint Misses (PAM) was started with the intention of being able to predict the type of patients that would not come for appointments after making bookings. Methods Historic hospital appointment data merged with “distance from hospital” variable was used to run Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine and Recursive Partitioning to decide the contributing variables to missed appointments. Results Variables that are “class”, “time”, “demographics” related have an effect on the target variable, however, prediction models may not perform effectively due to very subtle influence on the target variable. Previously assumed major contributors like “age”, “distance” did not have a major effect on the target variable. Conclusions With the given data it will be very difficult to make any moderate/strong prediction of the Appointment misses. That being said with the help of the cut off we are able to capture all of the “appointment misses” in addition to also capturing the actualized appointments. PMID:28567409

Model-based restoration using light vein for range-gated imaging systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Canjin; Sun, Tao; Wang, Tingfeng; Wang, Rui; Guo, Jin; Tian, Yuzhen

2016-09-10

The images captured by an airborne range-gated imaging system are degraded by many factors, such as light scattering, noise, defocus of the optical system, atmospheric disturbances, platform vibrations, and so on. The characteristics of low illumination, few details, and high noise make the state-of-the-art restoration method fail. In this paper, we present a restoration method especially for range-gated imaging systems. The degradation process is divided into two parts: the static part and the dynamic part. For the static part, we establish the physical model of the imaging system according to the laser transmission theory, and estimate the static point spread function (PSF). For the dynamic part, a so-called light vein feature extraction method is presented to estimate the fuzzy parameter of the atmospheric disturbance and platform movement, which make contributions to the dynamic PSF. Finally, combined with the static and dynamic PSF, an iterative updating framework is used to restore the image. Compared with the state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method can effectively suppress ringing artifacts and achieve better performance in a range-gated imaging system.

Gating Systems for Sizeable Castings from Al Alloys Cast into Ceramic Moulds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Stachovec

2012-04-01

Full Text Available In contrast to casting to conventional non-reusable “sand” moulds, for which calculating technique for an optimum design of the gating system is comparatively well-developed, a trial-and-error method is applied mostly for casting to ceramic shell moulds made by the investment casting technology. A technologist selects from gating systems of several types (that are standardized by the foundry mostly on the basis of experience. However, this approach is not sustainable with ever growing demands on quality of castings and also the economy of their fabrication as well as with new types of complex sizeable castings introduced to the production gradually (by new customers from the aircraft industry above all any more. The simulation software may be used as a possible tool for making the process of optimising gating systems more effective.

Speed limits for quantum gates in multiqubit systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ashhab, S.; De Groot, P.C.; Nori, F.

2012-01-01

We use analytical and numerical calculations to obtain speed limits for various unitary quantum operations in multiqubit systems under typical experimental conditions. The operations that we consider include single-, two-, and three-qubit gates, as well as quantum-state transfer in a chain of

48 CFR 1401.603-3 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Responsibilities 1401.603-3 Appointment. Purchase card holders may be appointed in writing or in accordance with the bureau/office procedures within the constraints of DOI Integrated Charge Card Program Policy Manual located at http://www.doi.gov/pam/chargecard. Additional guidance is available in the GSA Smart...

Appointment, qualifications and responsibilities of ventilation officers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-01-01

The Code provides for the appointment of a ventilation officer when required by the appropriate authority. This guideline offers comment on the appointment, qualifications, training and responsibilities of that person

Four-level systems and a universal quantum gate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baldiotti, M.C.; Gitman, D.M. [Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, S.P. (Brazil)

2008-07-15

We discuss the possibility of implementing a universal quantum XOR gate by using two coupled quantum dots subject to external magnetic fields that are parallel and slightly different. We consider this system in two different field configurations. In the first case, parallel external fields with the intensity difference at each spin being proportional to the time-dependent interaction between the spins. A general exact solution describing this system is presented and analyzed to adjust field parameters. Then we consider parallel fields with intensity difference at each spin being constant and the interaction between the spins switching on and off adiabatically. In both cases we adjust characteristics of the external fields (their intensities and duration) in order to have the parallel pulse adequate for constructing the XOR gate. In order to provide a complete theoretical description of all the cases, we derive relations between the spin interaction, the inter-dot distance, and the external field. (Abstract Copyright [2008], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Factors influencing non-attendance of clinic appointments in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

without an appointment, with an average of eight patients per day missing their appointment. The low rate of compliance with clinic appointments was of concern for the physicians at both the diabetes clinics. Prior to the current study, the reasons for non-attendance had not been examined. Materials and methods. A sample ...

A high performance gate drive for large gate turn off thyristors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Szilagyi, C.P.

1993-01-01

Past approaches to gate turn-off (GTO) gating are application oriented, inefficient and dissipate power even when inactive. They allow the gate to avalanch, and do not reduce GTO turn-on and turn-off losses. A new approach is proposed which will allow modular construction and adaptability to large GTOs in the 50 amp to 2000 amp range. The proposed gate driver can be used in large voltage source and current source inverters and other power converters. The approach consists of a power metal-oxide-silicon field effect transistor (MOSFET) technology gating unit, with associated logic and supervisory circuits and an isolated flyback converter as the dc power source for the gating unit. The gate driver formed by the gating unit and the flyback converter is designed for 4000 V isolation. Control and supervisory signals are exchanged between the gate driver and the remote control system via fiber optics. The gating unit has programmable front-porch current amplitude and pulse-width, programmable closed-loop controlled back-porch current, and a turn-off switch capable of supplying negative gate current at demand as a function of peak controllable forward anode current. The GTO turn-on, turn-off and gate avalanch losses are reduced to a minimum. The gate driver itself has minimum operating losses. Analysis, design and practical realization are reported. 19 refs., 54 figs., 1 tab.

Consideration of the accuracy by variation of respiration in real-time position management respiratory gating system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Na, Jun Young; Kang, Tae Young; Beak, Geum Mun; Kwon, Gyeong Tae

2013-01-01

Respiratory Gated Radiation Therapy (RGRT) has been carried out using RPM (Real-time Position Management) Respiratory Gating System (version 1.7.5, varian, USA) in Asan Medical Center. This study was to analyze and evaluate the accuracy of Respiratory Gated Radiation Therapy (RGRT) according to variation of respiration. Making variation of respiration using Motion Phantom:QUASAR Programmable Respiratory Motion Phantom (Moudus Medical Device Inc. CANADA) able to adjust respiration pattern randomly was varying period, amplitude and baseline by analyze 50 patient's respiration of lung and liver cancer. One of the variations of respiration is baseline shift gradually downward per 0.01 cm, 0.03 cm, 0.05 cm. The other variation of respiration is baseline shift accidently downward per 0.2 cm, 0.4 cm, 0.6 cm, 0.8 cm. Experiments were performed in the same way that is used RPM Respiratory Gating System (phase gating, usually 30-70% gating) in Asan Medical Center. It was all exposed radiation under one of the conditions of baseline shift gradually downward per 0.01 cm, 0.03 cm, 0.05 cm. Under the other condition of baseline shift accidently downward per 0.2 cm, 0.4 cm, 0.6 cm, 0.8 cm equally radiation was exposed. The variations of baseline shifts didn't accurately reflect on phase gating in RPM Respiratory Gating System. This inexactitude makes serious uncertainty in Respiratory Gated Radiation Therapy. So, Must be stabilized breathing of patient before conducting Respiratory Gated Radiation Therapy. also must be monitored breathing of patient in the middle of treatment. If you observe considerable changes of breathing when conducting Respiratory Gated Radiation Therapy. Stopping treatment immediately and then must be need to recheck treatment site using fluoroscopy. If patient's respiration rechecked using fluoroscopy restabilize, it is possible to restart Respiratory Gated Radiation Therapy

Multiple Independent Gate FETs: How Many Gates Do We Need?

OpenAIRE

Amarù, Luca; Hills, Gage; Gaillardon, Pierre-Emmanuel; Mitra, Subhasish; De Micheli, Giovanni

2015-01-01

Multiple Independent Gate Field Effect Transistors (MIGFETs) are expected to push FET technology further into the semiconductor roadmap. In a MIGFET, supplementary gates either provide (i) enhanced conduction properties or (ii) more intelligent switching functions. In general, each additional gate also introduces a side implementation cost. To enable more efficient digital systems, MIGFETs must leverage their expressive power to realize complex logic circuits with few physical resources. Rese...

Development of patient-controlled respiratory gating system based on visual guidance for magnetic-resonance image-guided radiation therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jung-In; Lee, Hanyoung; Wu, Hong-Gyun; Chie, Eui Kyu; Kang, Hyun-Cheol; Park, Jong Min

2017-09-01

The aim of this study is to develop a visual guidance patient-controlled (VG-PC) respiratory gating system for respiratory-gated magnetic-resonance image-guided radiation therapy (MR-IGRT) and to evaluate the performance of the developed system. The near-real-time cine planar MR image of a patient acquired during treatment was transmitted to a beam projector in the treatment room through an optical fiber cable. The beam projector projected the cine MR images inside the bore of the ViewRay system in order to be visible to a patient during treatment. With this visual information, patients voluntarily controlled their respiration to put the target volume into the gating boundary (gating window). The effect of the presence of the beam projector in the treatment room on the image quality of the MRI was investigated by evaluating the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), uniformity, low-contrast detectability, high-contrast spatial resolution, and spatial integrity with the VG-PC gating system. To evaluate the performance of the developed system, we applied the VG-PC gating system to a total of seven patients; six patients received stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) and one patient received conventional fractionated radiation therapy. The projected cine MR images were visible even when the room light was on. No image data loss or additional time delay during delivery of image data were observed. Every indicator representing MRI quality, including SNR, uniformity, low-contrast detectability, high-contrast spatial resolution, and spatial integrity exhibited values higher than the tolerance levels of the manufacturer with the VG-PC gating system; therefore, the presence of the VG-PC gating system in the treatment room did not degrade the MR image quality. The average beam-off times due to respiratory gating with and without the VG-PC gating system were 830.3 ± 278.2 s and 1264.2 ± 302.1 s respectively (P = 0.005). Consequently, the total treatment times excluding

Multi-target-qubit unconventional geometric phase gate in a multi-cavity system.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Tong; Cao, Xiao-Zhi; Su, Qi-Ping; Xiong, Shao-Jie; Yang, Chui-Ping

2016-02-22

Cavity-based large scale quantum information processing (QIP) may involve multiple cavities and require performing various quantum logic operations on qubits distributed in different cavities. Geometric-phase-based quantum computing has drawn much attention recently, which offers advantages against inaccuracies and local fluctuations. In addition, multiqubit gates are particularly appealing and play important roles in QIP. We here present a simple and efficient scheme for realizing a multi-target-qubit unconventional geometric phase gate in a multi-cavity system. This multiqubit phase gate has a common control qubit but different target qubits distributed in different cavities, which can be achieved using a single-step operation. The gate operation time is independent of the number of qubits and only two levels for each qubit are needed. This multiqubit gate is generic, e.g., by performing single-qubit operations, it can be converted into two types of significant multi-target-qubit phase gates useful in QIP. The proposal is quite general, which can be used to accomplish the same task for a general type of qubits such as atoms, NV centers, quantum dots, and superconducting qubits.

Modeling Patient No-Show History and Predicting Future Outpatient Appointment Behavior in the Veterans Health Administration.

Science.gov (United States)

Goffman, Rachel M; Harris, Shannon L; May, Jerrold H; Milicevic, Aleksandra S; Monte, Robert J; Myaskovsky, Larissa; Rodriguez, Keri L; Tjader, Youxu C; Vargas, Dominic L

2017-05-01

Missed appointments reduce the efficiency of the health care system and negatively impact access to care for all patients. Identifying patients at risk for missing an appointment could help health care systems and providers better target interventions to reduce patient no-shows. Our aim was to develop and test a predictive model that identifies patients that have a high probability of missing their outpatient appointments. Demographic information, appointment characteristics, and attendance history were drawn from the existing data sets from four Veterans Affairs health care facilities within six separate service areas. Past attendance behavior was modeled using an empirical Markov model based on up to 10 previous appointments. Using logistic regression, we developed 24 unique predictive models. We implemented the models and tested an intervention strategy using live reminder calls placed 24, 48, and 72 hours ahead of time. The pilot study targeted 1,754 high-risk patients, whose probability of missing an appointment was predicted to be at least 0.2. Our results indicate that three variables were consistently related to a patient's no-show probability in all 24 models: past attendance behavior, the age of the appointment, and having multiple appointments scheduled on that day. After the intervention was implemented, the no-show rate in the pilot group was reduced from the expected value of 35% to 12.16% (p value < 0.0001). The predictive model accurately identified patients who were more likely to miss their appointments. Applying the model in practice enables clinics to apply more intensive intervention measures to high-risk patients. Reprint & Copyright © 2017 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

CNPC Appoints Chief Experts for Important Technological Projects

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhao Jianzhong

2006-01-01

@@ On June 27th, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) held a public recruitment to appoint chief experts in Beijing for its important technological projects, which is the first time for CNPC to appoint chief managers by the means of competitive recruitment. This recruitment covers four projects, such as drilling, logging, geophysical survey and ground engineering with 15 projects. Of those,there are 8 drilling projects, which make up 50 percent of all the important technological projects for public recruitment. CNPC expects to further boost the chief expert responsibility system and promote the research and development (R&D) of technological project on the basis of the public recruitment. The company completes the recruitment following the procedure of making announcement, conducting competitive recruitment and giving publicity. On July 25th, the appointment ceremony was held by CNPC and 15 experts were awarded the certificates. CNPC is entering a new stage for the implementation of the technology and talent strategy for the 11th Five-Year Plan. What's more, a new management mode is taking shape for the technological project and for the construction of technological personnel pool.

Between the Cup and the Lip: Missed Dental Appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Tandon, Sandeep; Duhan, Reena; Sharma, Meenakshi; Vasudeva, Suraj

2016-05-01

Missed appointments are an issue which have been very commonly noticed but overlooked in Indian dental society. Almost every dentist, general or specialized, private or public, has faced this problem in routine practice but very less research has been conducted on this issue in Asian countries. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and distribution of missed dental appointments among children and the reasons behind the non-attendance in department of paediatric and preventive dentistry. Patients under 15 years of age who reported during the period March through August 2014 were included in this study. Attendance data and demographical data for patients was obtained from patient records and the hospital database. The type of treatment patients were to receive was gathered from the appointment diaries of staff, postgraduate students and undergraduates. A structured questionnaire regarding the most frequent reasons given by patients for not attending the scheduled appointment was also prepared. The data were analysed using descriptive analysis. Of the total 2294 patients 886 patients failed to come on their scheduled appointment. Percentage of patients who missed their appointments was 38.6%. A 38.2% of them required primary teeth pulp therapy. No significant differences was found between genders regarding the prevalence of missed dental appointments. Only 40% dentist witnessed that the most common reason for their patients to miss dental appointment was "no leave from school". Illness was the second frequent excuse heard by dentists (5/20= 25%) from their patients and attendants. Missed dental appointment was found to be a common issue in paediatric age group. Counseling and motivation is required to be done at first dental visit to reduce the chances of missed appointment.

The effects of gate oxide thickness on radiation damage in MOS system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Hui; Yan Rongliang; Wang Yu; He Jinming

1988-01-01

The dependences of the flatband voltage shift (ΔV FB ) and the threshold voltage shift (ΔV TH ) in MOS system on the oxide thickness (T ox ) and on total irradiated dose (D) of electron-beam and 60 Co γ-ray have been studied. It has been found that ΔV FB ∝ T ox 3 , with +10V of gate bias during irradiation for n-Si substrate MOS capacitors; ΔV TH ∝ T ox 3 D 2/3 , with 'on' gate bias during irradiation for n- and P-channel MOS transistors; ΔV TP ∝ T ox 2 D 2/3 , with 'off' gate bias during irradiation for P-channel MOS transistors. These results are explained by Viswanathan model. According to ∼T ox 3 dependence, the optimization of radiation hardening process for MOS system is also simply discussed

Investor Response to Appointment of Female CEOs and CFOs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scholtens, Lambertus; Brinkhuis, Eline

2018-01-01

We study the impact of appointing women to top executive positions from an investor perspective. We analyze whether shareholders value announcement of appointment of women to top positions differently than they do appointment of men. This study uses an international sample of 100 announcements of

Stream-lined Gating Systems with Improved Yield - Dimensioning and Experimental Validation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tiedje, Niels Skat; Skov-Hansen, Søren Peter

the two types of lay-outs are cast in production. It is shown that flow in the stream-lined lay-out is well controlled and that the quality of the castings is as at least equal to that of castings produced with a traditional lay-out. Further, the yield is improved by 4 % relative to a traditional lay-out.......The paper describes how a stream-lined gating system where the melt is confined and controlled during filling can be designed. Commercial numerical modelling software has been used to compare the stream-lined design with a traditional gating system. These results are confirmed by experiments where...

Behavioral changes during dental appointments in children having tooth extractions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Gonzalez Cademartori

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Tooth extractions are associated with anxiety-related situations that can cause behavioral problems in pediatric dental clinics. Aim: We aimed to describe the behavior of children during tooth extraction appointments, compare it to their behavior in preceding and subsequent dental appointments, and assess the behavioral differences according to gender, age, type of dentition, and reason for extraction. Settings and Design: This was a retrospective study based on information obtained from records of children between 6 and 13 years of age who were cared for at the Dentistry School in Pelotas, Brazil. Materials and Methods: Child behavior was assessed during the dental appointment that preceded the tooth extraction, during the tooth extraction appointment, and in the subsequent dental appointment using the Venham Behavior Rating Scale. Statistical Analysis: Results were analyzed using the Pearson Chi-square and McNemar tests. Results: Eighty-nine children were included. Cooperative behavior prevailed in all the dental appointments. The prevalence of “mild/intense protest” was higher in the tooth extraction appointments than in the previous or subsequent dental appointments (P < 0.001. No significant differences in behavior were detected between the type of dentition (primary or permanent teeth, reason for extraction or gender. Conclusion: In this sample of children treated at a dental school, the occurrence of uncooperative behavior was higher during the tooth extraction appointments than in the preceding and subsequent dental appointments.

Classical Boolean logic gates with quantum systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Renaud, N; Joachim, C

2011-01-01

An analytical method is proposed to implement any classical Boolean function in a small quantum system by taking the advantage of its electronic transport properties. The logical input, α = {α 1 , ..., α N }, is used to control well-identified parameters of the Hamiltonian of the system noted H 0 (α). The logical output is encoded in the tunneling current intensity passing through the quantum system when connected to conducting electrodes. It is demonstrated how to implement the six symmetric two-input/one-output Boolean functions in a quantum system. This system can be switched from one logic function to another by changing its structural parameters. The stability of the logic gates is discussed, perturbing the Hamiltonian with noise sources and studying the effect of decoherence.

Sensorimotor gating deficits in multiple system atrophy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zoetmulder, Marielle; Biernat, Heidi Bryde; Nikolic, Miki

2014-01-01

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the auditory blink reflex is a measure of sensorimotor gating, which reflects an organism's ability to filter out irrelevant sensory information. PPI has never been studied in patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA), although sensorimotor deficits are frequently a...... associated with synucleinopathies. We investigated whether alterations in PPI were more pronounced in MSA compared with Parkinson's disease (PD), idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) and healthy controls....

Development of multi-channel gated integrator and PXI-DAQ system for nuclear detector arrays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kong Jie; Su Hong; Chen Zhiqiang; Dong Chengfu; Qian Yi; Gao Shanshan; Zhou Chaoyang; Lu Wan; Ye Ruiping; Ma Junbing

2010-01-01

A multi-channel gated integrator and PXI based data acquisition system have been developed for nuclear detector arrays with hundreds of detector units. The multi-channel gated integrator can be controlled by a programmable GI controller. The PXI-DAQ system consists of NI PXI-1033 chassis with several PXI-DAQ cards. The system software has a user-friendly GUI which is written in C language using LabWindows/CVI under Windows XP operating system. The performance of the PXI-DAQ system is very reliable and capable of handling event rate up to 40 kHz.

Gating system optimization of low pressure casting A356 aluminum alloy intake manifold based on numerical simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiang Wenming

2014-03-01

Full Text Available To eliminate the shrinkage porosity in low pressure casting of an A356 aluminum alloy intake manifold casting, numerical simulation on filling and solidification processes of the casting was carried out using the ProCAST software. The gating system of the casting is optimized according to the simulation results. Results show that when the gating system consists of only one sprue, the filling of the molten metal is not stable; and the casting does not follow the sequence solidification, and many shrinkage porosities are observed through the casting. After the gating system is improved by adding one runner and two in-gates, the filling time is prolonged from 4.0 s to 4.5 s, the filling of molten metal becomes stable, but this casting does not follow the sequence solidification either. Some shrinkage porosity is also observed in the hot spots of the casting. When the gating system was further improved by adding risers and chill to the hot spots of the casting, the shrinkage porosity defects were eliminated completely. Finally, by using the optimized gating system the A356 aluminum alloy intake manifold casting with integrated shape and smooth surface as well as dense microstructure was successfully produced.

Assessment of the Correlation between Appointment Scheduling and Patient Satisfaction in a Pediatric Dental Setup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amar N. Katre

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. The practice of modern pediatric dentistry requires delivery of quality care in combination with adherence to excellent business as well as time management principles. A definite appointment schedule should be presented to the parents on the first or second appointment. More importantly, the prescribed schedule should be followed to the best of the professional abilities of the pediatric dentist. Aims. The aim of the study was to assess the co-relation between appointment scheduling and patient satisfaction in a pediatric dental setup with the objective of understanding the parameters related to appointment scheduling to increase patient satisfaction. Method. A total of 40 patients, who visited the Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, YMT Dental College & Hospital, for dental treatment were selected on a random basis. A questionnaire with a set of 6 questions with a rating scale of 1–5 to assess the patient satisfaction related to appointment scheduling was prepared. Results. A significant number of the patients were happy with the existing appointment scheduling system barring a few exceptions.

Papike appointed Director of IOM

Science.gov (United States)

James Papike was appointed director of the Institute of Meteoritics in the Department of Geology and Presidential Professor at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, on July 1, 1990. Papike succeeded Klaus Keil, who moved to the University of Hawaii to direct the Planetary Geoscience Division at the Hawaii Institute of Geosciences.The newly constituted IOM will emphasize planetary volcanic processes through the study of achondritic meteorites, the Moon, and Earth, and the origin of primitive solar system materials and planetary formation through the study of chondritic meteorites.

25 CFR 11.706 - Appointment and duties of appraiser.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Appointment and duties of appraiser. 11.706 Section 11... OFFENSES AND LAW AND ORDER CODE Probate Proceedings § 11.706 Appointment and duties of appraiser. (a) Upon ordering an estate to be probated, the court shall appoint a disinterested and competent person as an...

SU-F-T-526: A Comparative Study On Gating Efficiency of Varian RPM Device and Calypso System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ravindran, P [Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore (India); Wui Ann, W; Lim, Y [The Brunei Cancer Center (Brunei Darussalam)

2016-06-15

Purpose: In general, the linear accelerator is gated using respiratory signal obtained by way of external sensors to account for the breathing motion during radiotherapy. One of the commonly used gating devices is the Varian RPM device. Calypso system that uses electromagnetic tracking of implanted or surface transponders could also be used for gating. The aim of this study is to compare the gating efficiency of RPM device and the calypso system by phantom studies. Methods: An ArcCheck insert was used as the phantom with a Gafchromic film placed in its holder. The ArcCheck insert was placed on a Motion Sim platform and moved in the longitudinal direction simulating a respiratory motion with a period of 5 seconds and amplitude of ±6mm. The Gafchromic film was exposed to a 2 × 2cm{sup 2} field, i) with the phantom static, ii) phantom moving but ungated iii) gated with gating window of 2mm and 3mm. This was repeated with Calypso system using surface transponders with the same gating window. The Gafchromic films were read with an EPSON 11000 flatbed scanner and analysed with ‘Medphysto’ software. Results: The full width at half maximum (FWHM) as measured with film at the level of the film holder was 1.65cm when the phantom was static. FWHM measured with phantom moving and without gating was 1.16 cm and penumbra was 7 mm (80–20%) on both sides. When the beam was gated with 2 mm gating window the FWHM was 1.8 cm with RPM device and 1.9 cm with Calypso. Similarly, when the beam was gated with 3 mm window, the FWHM was 1.9cm with RPM device and 2cm with Calypso. Conclusion: This work suggests that the gating efficiency of RPM device is better than that of the Calypso with surface transponder, with reference to the latency in gating.

Council Appointed Mayors in Spain: Effects on Local Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Jesús García García

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the influence of having council appointed mayors on local governments. Five elements of local government systems are considered: the electoral system and its influence on the political composition of the local government; the local government structure and the distribution of functions and powers between mayor and council; the role of political parties; scrutiny of the executive and accountability; and citizen participation. This analysis highlights the effect that a council appointed mayor system has in terms of accountability and legitimacy, transparency and efficiency. KEYWORDS Local government systems, directly elected mayors, local governance, council appointed mayors, Local Government Structure; Political Parties; Citizen Participation; Accountability. El presente artículo toma en consideración los efectos que el sistema de elección del Alcalde tiene sobre la democracia local, basándose en la consideración cinco aspectos: el sistema electoral y su influencia en la composición política de las administraciones locales; la estructura de la administración local y la distribución de funciones entre los alcaldes y el pleno municipal; el papel de los partidos políticos; los mecanismos de control del ejecutivo local y la participación ciudadana. El estudio subraya especialmente la incidencia que el sistema de elección del alcalde por los concejales tiene en relación con los principios de responsabilidad, legitimidad, transparencia y eficiencia de la gestión local. PALABRAS CLAVE Gobierno local, elección directa de los alcaldes, elección indirecta de los alcaldes, estructura del gobierno local, partidos políticos, participación ciudadana, responsabilidad política.

Evaluation of irradiation position in respiratory-gated radiotherapy using a phantom system simulating patient respiration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oyama, Masaya; Ueda, Takashi; Kitoh, Satoshi; Tanaka, Takashi; Goka, Tomonori; Ogino, Takashi

2006-01-01

Respiratory-gated (RG) radiotherapy is useful for minimizing the irradiated volume of normal tissues resulting from the shifting of internal structures caused by respiratory movement. The present study was conducted to evaluate the treatment field in RG radiotherapy using a phantom system simulating patient respiration. A phantom system consisting of a 3-cm ball-shaped dummy tumor and film placed in a cork lung phantom was used (THK Co., Ltd.). RG radiotherapy was employed in the expiratory phase. The phantom movement distance was set to 2 cm, and the gating signals from a respiratory-gating system (AZ-733V, Anzai Medical) were varied. The settings used for irradiation were an X-ray energy of 6 MV (PRIMUS, Toshiba Medical Systems), treatment field of 5 cm x 7 cm, and X-ray dose of 100 MU. Images were acquired using an electric portal-imaging device (EPID, OPTIVUE 500), and the X-ray dose distribution was measured by the film method. In images acquired using the EPID, the tumor margins became less clear when the gating signals were increased, and the ITVs were determined to be 3.6 cm, 3.7 cm, 4.2 cm, and 5.1 cm at gating rates of 10%, 25%, 50%, and no gate, respectively. With regard to the X-ray dose distribution measured by the film method, the dose profile in the cephalocaudal direction was shifted toward the expiratory phase, and the degree of shift became greater when the gating signals were increased. In addition, the optimal treatment fields in the cephalocaudal direction were determined to be 5.2 cm, 5.2 cm, 5.6 cm, and 7.0 cm at gating rates of 10%, 25%, 50%, and no gating, respectively. Although RG radiotherapy is useful for improving the accuracy of radiotherapy, the characteristics of the RG radiotherapy technique and the radiotherapy system must be clearly understood when this method is to be employed in clinical practice. Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) is now assuming a central role in radiotherapy, and properly identifying internal margins is an

SU-F-T-518: Development and Characterization of a Gated Treatment System Implemented with An In-House Optical Tracking System and the Elekta Response Interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barraclough, B; Park, J; Li, F; Lu, B; Li, J; Liu, C; Yan, G

2016-01-01

Purpose: To report the development and characterization of the first in-house gating system implemented with an optical tracking system (OTS) and the Elekta Response™ interface. Methods: The Response™ connects a patient tracking system with a linac, enabling the tracking system to control radiation delivery. The developed system uses an in-house OTS to monitor patient breathing. The OTS consists of two infrared-based cameras, tracking markers affixed on patient. It achieves gated or breath-held (BH) treatment by calling beam ON/OFF functions in the Response™ dynamic-link library (DLL). A 4D motion phantom was used to evaluate its dosimetric and time delay characteristics. Two FF- and two FFF-IMRT beams were delivered in non-gated, BH and gated mode. The sinusoidal gating signal had a 6 sec period and 15 mm amplitude. The duty cycle included 10%, 20%, 30% and 50%. The BH signal was adapted from the sinusoidal wave by inserting 15 sec BHs. Each delivery was measured with a 2D diode array (MapCHECK™) and compared with the non-gated delivery using gamma analysis (3%). The beam ON/OFF time was captured using the service graphing utility of the linac. Results: The gated treatments were successfully delivered except the 10% duty cycle. The BH delivery had perfect agreement (100%) with non-gated delivery; the agreement of gated delivery decreased from 99% to 88% as duty cycle reduced from 50% to 20%. The beam on/off delay was on average 0.25/0.06 sec. The delivery time for the 50%, 30% and 20% duty cycle increased by 29%, 71% and 139%, respectively. No dosimetric or time delay difference was noticed between FF- and FFF-IMRT beams. Conclusion: The in-house gating system was successfully developed with dosimetric and time delay characteristics in line with published results for commercial systems. It will be an important platform for further research and clinical development of gated treatment.

ABOUT THE WAYS OF THE SYSTEM ANALYSIS OF METAL MOVEMENT IN GATING SYSTEMS BASED ON THE NUMERICAL SOLUTIONS OF NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. G. Lizouzov

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Numerical modeling of distribution of the fields of speeds projections on axes X, Y, Z in gating system with the casting “Case of conical pair” for various temporal values is carried out. Numerical criteria for assessment of metal movement through the feeders having various spatial location relative to the gating system are offered. Dynamics of change of the offered criteria on the basis of integral average value of the speed component on axes X, Y, Z in the gating systems at the outlet from feeder is calculated.

Performance of an X-ray spectroscopic system based on a double-gate double-feedback charge preamplifier

CERN Document Server

Fazzi, A

2000-01-01

The performance of a near room temperature X-ray spectroscopic system is reported. The system is based on a charge preamplifier with the first transistor having two separated gates. The preamplifier operates in a continuous reset mode without any physical resistor connected to the input node. The leakage current and the current due to the rate of X-rays is neutralized by an average current of holes, flowing under the control of an additional feedback, from the bottom to the top gate. The preamplifier is followed by a simple circuit which exactly cancels the long tail of the impulse response of a pure double-gate preamplifier. The compensation of this tail, due to the very principle of the preamplifier's continuous reset through the double-gate mechanism, improves substantially the high-rate performance of the system. The preamplifier based on a commercially available double-gate front JFET MX-40 (MOXTEK) coupled to a silicon drift detector produced at BNL achieved ENC of 13 electrons at -30 deg. C. The analys...

39 CFR 5.1 - Establishment and appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 39 Postal Service 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Establishment and appointment. 5.1 Section 5.1 Postal Service UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE COMMITTEES (ARTICLE V) § 5.1 Establishment and appointment. From time to time the Board may establish by resolution...

Comparison of thyristor rectifier characteristics with different gate control systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gula, V.; Cherepakhin, A.A.

1982-01-01

Some thyristor gate control systems both synchronous and nonsynchronous ones are described. The experimental results of supply voltage asymmetry influence on spectral contents of rectified. output voltage are quoted. Dynamic and frequency responses of these systems are investigated too. Results of comparison of the spectral content of 100 Hz subharmonic of rectified voltage on loading current showed the advantage of the systems with feedback [ru

Endodontic inter-appointment flare-ups: An example of chaos?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Poorya Jalali

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Pain and/or swelling after instrumentation of a root canal constitute a significant complication during endodontic treatment. Despite a large number of articles discussing the causative factors behind endodontic flare-ups, the exact mechanism is still not understood. The Hypothesis: The seemingly irrational behavior of endodontic inter-appointment flare-ups may be due to sensitive dependence on initial conditions. A model based on Lorenz′ chaos theory is presented as a possible explanation for the sudden emergence and unpredictability of flare-ups. Evaluation of the Hypothesis: All studies agree on some common traits regarding inter-appointment flare-ups: Careful instrumentation can still cause flare-up; the host inflammatory response behaves as a complex nonlinear network; and also the poly-etiologic nature of this phenomenon all illustrate the sensitive dependence on initial conditions of the system. Integrating more variables (e.g., different species of bacteria into this already complex system will make it increasingly chaotic reflecting its unpredictable behavior.

Reduction of missed appointments at an urban primary care clinic: a randomised controlled study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Calmy Alexandra

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Missed appointments are known to interfere with appropriate care and to misspend medical and administrative resources. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of a sequential intervention reminding patients of their upcoming appointment and to identify the profile of patients missing their appointments. Methods We conducted a randomised controlled study in an urban primary care clinic at the Geneva University Hospitals serving a majority of vulnerable patients. All patients booked in a primary care or HIV clinic at the Geneva University Hospitals were sent a reminder 48 hrs prior to their appointment according to the following sequential intervention: 1. Phone call (fixed or mobile reminder; 2. If no phone response: a Short Message Service (SMS reminder; 3. If no available mobile phone number: a postal reminder. The rate of missed appointment, the cost of the intervention, and the profile of patients missing their appointment were recorded. Results 2123 patients were included: 1052 in the intervention group, 1071 in the control group. Only 61.7% patients had a mobile phone recorded at the clinic. The sequential intervention significantly reduced the rate of missed appointments: 11.4% (n = 122 in the control group and 7.8% (n = 82 in the intervention group (p 1year (OR 2.2; CI: 1.15-4.2, substance abuse (2.09, CI 1.21-3.61, and being an asylum seeker (OR 2.73: CI 1.22-6.09. Conclusion A practical reminder system can significantly increase patient attendance at medical outpatient clinics. An intervention focused on specific patient characteristics could further increase the effectiveness of appointment reminders.

Non-English speakers attend gastroenterology clinic appointments at higher rates than English speakers in a vulnerable patient population

Science.gov (United States)

Sewell, Justin L.; Kushel, Margot B.; Inadomi, John M.; Yee, Hal F.

2009-01-01

Goals We sought to identify factors associated with gastroenterology clinic attendance in an urban safety net healthcare system. Background Missed clinic appointments reduce the efficiency and availability of healthcare, but subspecialty clinic attendance among patients with established healthcare access has not been studied. Study We performed an observational study using secondary data from administrative sources to study patients referred to, and scheduled for an appointment in, the adult gastroenterology clinic serving the safety net healthcare system of San Francisco, California. Our dependent variable was whether subjects attended or missed a scheduled appointment. Analysis included multivariable logistic regression and classification tree analysis. 1,833 patients were referred and scheduled for an appointment between 05/2005 and 08/2006. Prisoners were excluded. All patients had a primary care provider. Results 683 patients (37.3%) missed their appointment; 1,150 (62.7%) attended. Language was highly associated with attendance in the logistic regression; non-English speakers were less likely than English speakers to miss an appointment (adjusted odds ratio 0.42 [0.28,0.63] for Spanish, 0.56 [0.38,0.82] for Asian language, p gastroenterology clinic appointment, not speaking English was most strongly associated with higher attendance rates. Patient related factors associated with not speaking English likely influence subspecialty clinic attendance rates, and these factors may differ from those affecting general healthcare access. PMID:19169147

Managing patient demand: a qualitative study of appointment making in general practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher, M; Pearson, P; Drinkwater, C; Guy, J

2001-04-01

Managing patients' requests for appointments is an important general practice activity. No previous research has systematically observed how patients and receptionists negotiate appointments. To observe appointment making and investigate patients' and professionals' experiences of appointment negotiations. A qualitative study using participant observation. Three general practices on Tyneside; a single-handed practice, a practice comprising three doctors, and a seven-doctor practice. Participant observation sessions, consisting of 35 activity recordings and 34 periods of observation and 38 patient and 15 professional interviews, were set up. Seven groups of patients were selected for interview. These included patients attending an 'open access' surgery, patients who complained about making an appointment, and patients who complimented the receptionists. Appointment making is a complex social process. Outcomes are dependent on the process of negotiation and factors, such as patients' expectations and appointment availability. Receptionists felt that patients in employment, patients allocated to the practice by the Health Authority, and patients who did not comply with practice appointment rules were most demanding. Appointment requests are legitimised by receptionists enforcing practice rules and requesting clinical information. Patients volunteer information to provide evidence that their complaint is appropriate and employ strategies, such as persistence, assertiveness, and threats, to try and persuade receptionists to grant appointments. Appointment making is a complex social process where outcomes are negotiated. Receptionists have an important role in managing patient demand. Practices should be explicit about how appointments are allocated, including publishing practice criteria.

Real-time object tracking system based on field-programmable gate array and convolution neural network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Congyi Lyu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Vision-based object tracking has lots of applications in robotics, like surveillance, navigation, motion capturing, and so on. However, the existing object tracking systems still suffer from the challenging problem of high computation consumption in the image processing algorithms. The problem can prevent current systems from being used in many robotic applications which have limitations of payload and power, for example, micro air vehicles. In these applications, the central processing unit- or graphics processing unit-based computers are not good choices due to the high weight and power consumption. To address the problem, this article proposed a real-time object tracking system based on field-programmable gate array, convolution neural network, and visual servo technology. The time-consuming image processing algorithms, such as distortion correction, color space convertor, and Sobel edge, Harris corner features detector, and convolution neural network were redesigned using the programmable gates in field-programmable gate array. Based on the field-programmable gate array-based image processing, an image-based visual servo controller was designed to drive a two degree of freedom manipulator to track the target in real time. Finally, experiments on the proposed system were performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the real-time object tracking system.

Improving access to health care in a rural regional hospital in South Africa: Why do patients miss their appointments?

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Lucy; Jenkins, Louis S; Emmink, Benjamin

2017-03-30

Access to health services is one of the Batho Pele ('people first') values and principles of the South African government since 1997. This necessitated some changes around public service systems, procedures, attitudes and behaviour. The challenges of providing health care to rural geographically spread populations include variations in socio-economic status, transport opportunities, access to appointment information and patient perceptions of costs and benefits of seeking health care. George hospital, situated in a rural area, serves 5000 outpatient visits monthly, with non-attendance rates of up to 40%. The aim of this research was to gain a greater understanding of the reasons behind non-attendance of outpatient department clinics to allow locally driven, targeted interventions. This was a descriptive study. We attempted to phone all patients who missed appointments over a 1-month period (n = 574). Only 20% were contactable with one person declining consent. Twenty-nine percent had no telephone number on hospital systems, 7% had incorrect numbers, 2% had died and 42% did not respond to three attempts. The main reasons for non-attendance included unaware of appointment date (16%), out of area (11%), confusion over date (11%), sick or admitted to hospital (10%), family member sick or died (7%), appointment should have been cancelled by clerical staff (6%) and transport (6%). Only 9% chose to miss their appointment. The other 24% had various reasons. Improved patient awareness of appointments, adjustments in referral systems and enabling appointment cancellation if indicated would directly improve over two-thirds of reasons for non-attendance. Understanding the underlying causes will help appointment planning, reduce wasted costs and have a significant impact on patient care.

An evaluation of gating window size, delivery method, and composite field dosimetry of respiratory-gated IMRT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hugo, Geoffrey D.; Agazaryan, Nzhde; Solberg, Timothy D.

2002-01-01

A respiratory gating system has been developed based on a commercial patient positioning system. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of the gating system to reproduce normal, nongated IMRT operation and to quantify the errors produced by delivering a nongated IMRT treatment onto a moving target. A moving phantom capable of simultaneous two-dimensional motion was built, and an analytical liver motion function was used to drive the phantom. Studies were performed to assess the effect of gating window size and choice of delivery method (segmented and dynamic multileaf collimation). Additionally, two multiple field IMRT cases were delivered to quantify the error in gated and nongated IMRT with motion. Dosimetric error between nonmoving and moving deliveries is related to gating window size. By reducing the window size, the error can be reduced. Delivery error can be reduced for both dynamic and segmented delivery with gating. For the implementation of dynamic IMRT delivery in this study, dynamic delivery was found to generate larger delivery errors than segmented delivery in most cases studied. For multiple field IMRT delivery, the largest errors were generated in regions where high field modulation was present parallel to the axis of motion. Gating was found to reduce these large errors to clinically acceptable levels

The Impact of Health Care Appointment Non-Adherence on Graft Outcomes in Kidney Transplantation.

Science.gov (United States)

Taber, David J; Fleming, James N; Fominaya, Cory E; Gebregziabher, Mulugeta; Hunt, Kelly J; Srinivas, Titte R; Baliga, Prabhakar K; McGillicuddy, John W; Egede, Leonard E

2017-01-01

Non-adherence to medication is a well-studied and known cause of late allograft loss, but it is difficult to measure and prospectively monitor. The aim of this study was to assess if appointment non-adherence was correlated with medication non-adherence and a predictor of graft outcomes. This was a longitudinal cohort study that used the National United States Renal Data System and veterans affairs health records data with time-to-event analyses conducted to assess the impact on graft and patient survival. The number of transplants that were included in the analysis was 4,646 (3,656 with complete records); 14.6% of patients had an appointment no show rate of ≥12% (non-adherence). Appointment and medication non-adherence were highly correlated and both were significant independent predictors of outcomes. Those with appointment non-adherence had 1.5 times the risk of acute rejection (22.0 vs. 14.7%, p adherence; those with appointment and medication non-adherence were at very high risk of graft loss (aHR 4.18, 95% CI 3.39-5.15, p adherence (aHR 1.39, 95% CI 0.97-2.01, p = 0.0766) or only medication non-adherence (aHR 2.44, 95% CI 2.11-2.81, p adherence to health care appointments is a significant and independent risk factor for graft loss. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Appointment attendance at a remote rural dental training facility in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lalloo, Ratilal; McDonald, Jenny M

2013-08-02

Non-attended appointments have impacts on the operations of dental clinics. These impacts vary from lost productivity, loss of income and loss of clinical teaching hours. Appointment data were analysed to assess the percentage of completed, failed to attend (FTA) and cancelled appointments at an Australian remote rural student dental clinic training facility. The demographic and time characteristics of FTA and cancelled appointments were analysed using simple and multivariate multinomial regression analysis, to inform interventions that may be necessary. Over the 2-year study period a total of 3,042 appointments were made. The percentage of FTA was 21.3% (N = 648) and cancelled appointments 13.7% (N = 418). The odds of an FTA were in excess of 4 times higher in patients aged 19-25 years (OR = 4.1; 95% CI = 2.3-7.3) and 26-35 years (OR = 4.4; 95% CI = 2.5-7.9) compared to patients 65 years and older. The odds of an FTA was 2.3 (95% CI = 1.8-3.1) times higher in public patients compared to private patients. The odds of a cancellation was 1.7 (95% CI = 1.1-2.6) times higher on a Friday compared to a Monday and 1.8 (95% CI = 1.1-2.9) times higher on the last appointment of the day compared to the first appointment. For cancelled appointments, 71.3% were cancelled on the day of the appointment and 16.6% on the day before. Non-attended appointments (FTA or cancelled) were common at this remote rural dental clinic training facility. Efforts to reduce these need to be implemented; including telephonic reminders, educating the community on the importance of attending their appointments, block booking school children and double booking or arranging alternative activities for the students at times when non-attendance is common.

26 CFR 25.2514-1 - Transfers under power of appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... power of appointment. (a) Introductory. (1) Section 2514 treats the exercise of a general power of... section also treats as a transfer of property the exercise or complete release of a general power of... power of appointment is not treated as a general power of appointment merely by reason of the fact that...

Optimal control of quantum gates and suppression of decoherence in a system of interacting two-level particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grace, Matthew; Brif, Constantin; Rabitz, Herschel; Walmsley, Ian A; Kosut, Robert L; Lidar, Daniel A

2007-01-01

Methods of optimal control are applied to a model system of interacting two-level particles (e.g., spin-half atomic nuclei or electrons or two-level atoms) to produce high-fidelity quantum gates while simultaneously negating the detrimental effect of decoherence. One set of particles functions as the quantum information processor, whose evolution is controlled by a time-dependent external field. The other particles are not directly controlled and serve as an effective environment, coupling to which is the source of decoherence. The control objective is to generate target one- and two-qubit unitary gates in the presence of strong environmentally-induced decoherence and under physically motivated restrictions on the control field. The quantum-gate fidelity, expressed in terms of a novel state-independent distance measure, is maximized with respect to the control field using combined genetic and gradient algorithms. The resulting high-fidelity gates demonstrate the feasibility of precisely guiding the quantum evolution via optimal control, even when the system complexity is exacerbated by environmental coupling. It is found that the gate duration has an important effect on the control mechanism and resulting fidelity. An analysis of the sensitivity of the gate performance to random variations in the system parameters reveals a significant degree of robustness attained by the optimal control solutions

Hans Blix appointed Director General

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-01-01

On 1 December 1981, Dr Hans Blix took office as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency in succession to Dr Sigvard Eklund who has headed the IAEA since 1961. The Agency's Board of Governors nominated Dr Blix by acclamation on 26 September. His appointment was unanimously approved by the final session of the 25th regular session of the General Conference of the IAEA the same day. The President of the Conference, Ambassador Manaspas Xuto, administered the oath of office to Dr Blix at the final plenary meeting that day. Hans Blix was born in 1928 in Uppsala He studied at the University of Uppsala, at Columbia University, where he was also a research graduate and at Cambridge, where he received his Ph D In 1959 he became Doctor of Laws at the Stockholm University and in 1960 was appointed associate professor in international law. From 1963 to 1976 Dr Blix was Head of Department at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and served as Legal Adviser on International Law. In 1976 he became Undersecretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in charge of international development co-operation He was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in October 1978 In September 1979 he was again appointed Undersecretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in charge of international development co-operation. Since 1961 he has been a member of Sweden's delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, and from 1962 to 1978 a member of the Swedish delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. He has written several books on subjects associated with international and constitutional law and was leader of the Liberal Campaign Committee in favour of retention of the Swedish nuclear energy program in the referendum in 1980

Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Car, Josip; Gurol-Urganci, Ipek; de Jongh, Thyra; Vodopivec-Jamsek, Vlasta; Atun, Rifat

2012-07-11

Missed appointments are a major cause of inefficiency in healthcare delivery, with substantial monetary costs for the health system, leading to delays in diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Patients' forgetfulness is one of the main reasons for missed appointments, and reminders may help alleviate this problem. Modes of communicating reminders for appointments to patients include face-to-face communication, postal messages, calls to landlines or mobile phones, and mobile phone messaging. Mobile phone messaging applications such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) could provide an important, inexpensive delivery medium for reminders for healthcare appointments. To assess the effects of mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments. Secondary objectives include assessment of patients' and healthcare providers' evaluation of the intervention; costs; and possible risks and harms associated with the intervention. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL,The Cochrane Library 2009, Issue 2), MEDLINE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), EMBASE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), PsycINFO (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), CINAHL (EbscoHOST) (January 1993 to June 2009), LILACS (January 1993 to June 2009) and African Health Anthology (January 1993 to June 2009). We also reviewed grey literature (including trial registers) and reference lists of articles. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-randomised controlled trials (QRCTs), controlled before-after (CBA) studies, or interrupted time series (ITS) studies with at least three time points before and after the intervention. We included studies assessing mobile phone messaging as reminders for healthcare appointments. We only included studies in which it was possible to assess effects of mobile phone messaging independent of other technologies or interventions.   Two review authors independently assessed all

Email for the coordination of healthcare appointments and attendance reminders.

Science.gov (United States)

Atherton, Helen; Sawmynaden, Prescilla; Meyer, Barbara; Car, Josip

2012-08-15

Email is a popular and commonly-used method of communication, but its use in health care is not routine. Where email communication has been utilised in health care, its purposes have included the coordination of healthcare appointments and attendance reminders, but the effects of using email in this way are not known. This review considers the use of email for the coordination of healthcare appointments and reminders for attendance; particularly scheduling, rescheduling and cancelling healthcare appointments, and providing prompts/reminders for attendance at appointments. To assess the effects of using email for the coordination of healthcare appointments and attendance reminders, compared to other forms of coordinating appointments and reminders, on outcomes for health professionals, patients and carers, and health services, including harms. We searched: the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group Specialised Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library, Issue 1 2010), MEDLINE (OvidSP) (1950 to January 2010), EMBASE (OvidSP) (1980 to January 2010), PsycINFO (OvidSP) (1967 to January 2010), CINAHL (EbscoHOST) (1982 to February 2010),and ERIC (CSA) (1965 to January 2010). We searched grey literature: theses/dissertation repositories, trials registers and Google Scholar (searched July 2010). We used additional search methods: examining reference lists and contacting authors. Randomised controlled trials, quasi-randomised trials, controlled before and after studies and interrupted time series studies of interventions that use email for scheduling health appointments, for reminders for a scheduled health appointment or for ongoing coordination of health appointments and that took the form of 1) unsecured email 2) secure email or 3) web messaging. All healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers in all settings were considered. Two review authors independently assessed the titles and abstracts of retrieved

38 CFR 17.100 - Refusal of treatment by unnecessarily breaking appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... and satisfactory reasons are advanced for breaking the appointment and circumstances were such that... unnecessarily breaking appointments. 17.100 Section 17.100 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL Breaking Appointments § 17.100 Refusal of treatment by unnecessarily breaking...

25 CFR 140.1 - Sole power to appoint.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Sole power to appoint. 140.1 Section 140.1 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES LICENSED INDIAN TRADERS § 140.1 Sole power to appoint. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall have the sole power and authority to...

Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurol-Urganci, Ipek; de Jongh, Thyra; Vodopivec-Jamsek, Vlasta; Atun, Rifat; Car, Josip

2013-12-05

This review is an update of the original Cochrane review published in July 2012. Missed appointments are a major cause of inefficiency in healthcare delivery with substantial monetary costs for the health system, leading to delays in diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Patients' forgetfulness is one of the main reasons for missed appointments. Patient reminders may help reduce missed appointments. Modes of communicating reminders for appointments to patients include face-to-face communication, postal messages, calls to landlines or mobile phones, and mobile phone messaging. Mobile phone messaging applications, such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS), could provide an important, inexpensive delivery medium for reminders for healthcare appointments. To update our review assessing the effects of mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments. Secondary objectives include assessment of costs; health outcomes; patients' and healthcare providers' evaluation of the intervention and perceptions of safety; and possible harms and adverse effects associated with the intervention. Original searches were run in June 2009. For this update, we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL,The Cochrane Library 2012, Issue 8), MEDLINE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to August 2012), EMBASE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to August 2012), PsycINFO (OvidSP) (January 1993 to August 2012) and CINAHL (EbscoHOST) (January 1993 to August 2012). We also reviewed grey literature (including trial registers) and reference lists of articles. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) assessing mobile phone messaging as reminders for healthcare appointments. We only included studies in which it was possible to assess effects of mobile phone messaging independent of other technologies or interventions.   Two review authors independently assessed all studies against the inclusion criteria, with any disagreements resolved by a third

Digital systems from logic gates to processors

CERN Document Server

Deschamps, Jean-Pierre; Terés, Lluís

2017-01-01

This textbook for a one-semester course in Digital Systems Design describes the basic methods used to develop “traditional” Digital Systems, based on the use of logic gates and flip flops, as well as more advanced techniques that enable the design of very large circuits, based on Hardware Description Languages and Synthesis tools. It was originally designed to accompany a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) created at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), currently available on the Coursera platform. Readers will learn what a digital system is and how it can be developed, preparing them for steps toward other technical disciplines, such as Computer Architecture, Robotics, Bionics, Avionics and others. In particular, students will learn to design digital systems of medium complexity, describe digital systems using high level hardware description languages, and understand the operation of computers at their most basic level. All concepts introduced are reinforced by plentiful illustrations, examples, ...

Distribution and function of voltage-gated sodium channels in the nervous system.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jun; Ou, Shao-Wu; Wang, Yun-Jie

2017-11-02

Voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) are the basic ion channels for neuronal excitability, which are crucial for the resting potential and the generation and propagation of action potentials in neurons. To date, at least nine distinct sodium channel isoforms have been detected in the nervous system. Recent studies have identified that voltage-gated sodium channels not only play an essential role in the normal electrophysiological activities of neurons but also have a close relationship with neurological diseases. In this study, the latest research findings regarding the structure, type, distribution, and function of VGSCs in the nervous system and their relationship to neurological diseases, such as epilepsy, neuropathic pain, brain tumors, neural trauma, and multiple sclerosis, are reviewed in detail.

An investigation into why patients do not attend for out-patient radiology appointments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lyon, Rebecca; Reeves, Pauline J.

2006-01-01

Introduction: Patients who do not attend (DNA) for out-patient hospital appointments cause delays in the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of their own, and other patient's, illnesses, with potentially hazardous consequences. This also impacts upon waiting lists. Failure to attend is viewed as a specific type of non-compliance and social cognition theories have been applied to previous studies in an attempt to uncover the reasons why patients choose not to keep their appointments. Methods: A case-control study was conducted throughout the X-ray departments of a District General type of NHS Trust, using telephone interview questionnaires based on the Health Belief Model, in an attempt to identify any significant differences between attenders and non-attenders, so that likely non-attenders could be targeted. Results: Principal reasons for non-attendance were that the patient forgot or that they did not receive their appointment. The results differed from previous research, in that specific health beliefs were not the primary reasons for non-attendance. Departments that gave patients the opportunity to arrange their appointments for a mutually convenient time had exceptionally low DNA rates, as did those which had rigorous confirmation systems in place

Automated detection of follow-up appointments using text mining of discharge records.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruud, Kari L; Johnson, Matthew G; Liesinger, Juliette T; Grafft, Carrie A; Naessens, James M

2010-06-01

To determine whether text mining can accurately detect specific follow-up appointment criteria in free-text hospital discharge records. Cross-sectional study. Mayo Clinic Rochester hospitals. Inpatients discharged from general medicine services in 2006 (n = 6481). Textual hospital dismissal summaries were manually reviewed to determine whether the records contained specific follow-up appointment arrangement elements: date, time and either physician or location for an appointment. The data set was evaluated for the same criteria using SAS Text Miner software. The two assessments were compared to determine the accuracy of text mining for detecting records containing follow-up appointment arrangements. Agreement of text-mined appointment findings with gold standard (manual abstraction) including sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV). About 55.2% (3576) of discharge records contained all criteria for follow-up appointment arrangements according to the manual review, 3.2% (113) of which were missed through text mining. Text mining incorrectly identified 3.7% (107) follow-up appointments that were not considered valid through manual review. Therefore, the text mining analysis concurred with the manual review in 96.6% of the appointment findings. Overall sensitivity and specificity were 96.8 and 96.3%, respectively; and PPV and NPV were 97.0 and 96.1%, respectively. of individual appointment criteria resulted in accuracy rates of 93.5% for date, 97.4% for time, 97.5% for physician and 82.9% for location. Text mining of unstructured hospital dismissal summaries can accurately detect documentation of follow-up appointment arrangement elements, thus saving considerable resources for performance assessment and quality-related research.

Introduction to embedded system design using field programmable gate arrays

CERN Document Server

Dubey, Rahul

2009-01-01

Offers information on the use of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) in the design of embedded systems. This text considers a hypothetical robot controller as an embedded application and weaves around it related concepts of FPGA-based digital design. It is suitable for both students and designers who have worked with microprocessors.

Evaluation of an infrared camera and X-ray system using implanted fiducials in patients with lung tumors for gated radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Willoughby, Twyla R.; Forbes, Alan R.; Buchholz, Daniel; Langen, Katja M.; Wagner, Thomas H.; Zeidan, Omar A.; Kupelian, Patrick A.; Meeks, Sanford L.

2006-01-01

Purpose: To report on the initial clinical use of a commercially available system to deliver gated treatment using implanted fiducials, in-room kV X-rays, and an infrared camera tracking system. Methods and Materials: ExacTrac Adaptive Gating from BrainLab is a localization system using infrared cameras and X-rays. Gating signals are the patient's breathing pattern obtained from infrared reflectors on the patient. kV X-rays of an implanted fiducial are synchronized to the breathing pattern. After localization and shift of the patient to isocenter, the breathing pattern is used to gate Radiation. Feasibility tests included localization accuracy, radiation output constancy, and dose distributions with gating. Clinical experience is reported on treatment of patients with small lung lesions. Results: Localization accuracy of a moving target with gating was 1.7 mm. Dose constancy measurements showed insignificant change in output with gating. Improvements of dose distributions on moving targets improved with gating. Eleven patients with lung lesions were implanted with 20 mm x 0.7 mm gold coil (Visicoil). The implanted fiducial was used to localize and treat the patients with gating. Treatment planning and repeat computed tomographic scans showed that the change in center of gross target volume (GTV) to implanted marker averaged 2.47 mm due in part to asymmetric tumor shrinkage. Conclusion: ExacTrac Adaptive Gating has been used to treat lung lesions. Initial system evaluation verified its accuracy and usability. Implanted fiducials are visible in X-rays and did not migrate

Multi-agent Pareto appointment exchanging in hospital patient scheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

I.B. Vermeulen (Ivan); S.M. Bohte (Sander); D.J.A. Somefun (Koye); J.A. La Poutré (Han)

2007-01-01

htmlabstractWe present a dynamic and distributed approach to the hospital patient scheduling problem, in which patients can have multiple appointments that have to be scheduled to different resources. To efficiently solve this problem we develop a multi-agent Pareto-improvement appointment

Multi-agent Pareto appointment exchanging in hospital patient scheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vermeulen, I.B.; Bohté, S.M.; Somefun, D.J.A.; Poutré, La J.A.

2007-01-01

We present a dynamic and distributed approach to the hospital patient scheduling problem, in which patients can have multiple appointments that have to be scheduled to different resources. To efficiently solve this problem we develop a multi-agent Pareto-improvement appointment exchanging algorithm:

25 CFR 11.704 - Appointment and duties of executor or administrator.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Appointment and duties of executor or administrator. 11... executor or administrator. (a) Upon ordering the estate to be probated, the court shall appoint an... be the executor of the estate shall be so appointed, provided such person is willing to serve in such...

45 CFR 211.5 - Action under State law; appointment of guardian.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Action under State law; appointment of guardian... Action under State law; appointment of guardian. Whenever an eligible person is incapable of giving his... appointment of a legal guardian, to ensure the proper planning for and provision of such care and treatment. ...

Chemotherapy appointment scheduling under uncertainty using mean-risk stochastic integer programming.

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarado, Michelle; Ntaimo, Lewis

2018-03-01

Oncology clinics are often burdened with scheduling large volumes of cancer patients for chemotherapy treatments under limited resources such as the number of nurses and chairs. These cancer patients require a series of appointments over several weeks or months and the timing of these appointments is critical to the treatment's effectiveness. Additionally, the appointment duration, the acuity levels of each appointment, and the availability of clinic nurses are uncertain. The timing constraints, stochastic parameters, rising treatment costs, and increased demand of outpatient oncology clinic services motivate the need for efficient appointment schedules and clinic operations. In this paper, we develop three mean-risk stochastic integer programming (SIP) models, referred to as SIP-CHEMO, for the problem of scheduling individual chemotherapy patient appointments and resources. These mean-risk models are presented and an algorithm is devised to improve computational speed. Computational results were conducted using a simulation model and results indicate that the risk-averse SIP-CHEMO model with the expected excess mean-risk measure can decrease patient waiting times and nurse overtime when compared to deterministic scheduling algorithms by 42 % and 27 %, respectively.

Bilevel Fuzzy Chance Constrained Hospital Outpatient Appointment Scheduling Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoyang Zhou

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Hospital outpatient departments operate by selling fixed period appointments for different treatments. The challenge being faced is to improve profit by determining the mix of full time and part time doctors and allocating appointments (which involves scheduling a combination of doctors, patients, and treatments to a time period in a department optimally. In this paper, a bilevel fuzzy chance constrained model is developed to solve the hospital outpatient appointment scheduling problem based on revenue management. In the model, the hospital, the leader in the hierarchy, decides the mix of the hired full time and part time doctors to maximize the total profit; each department, the follower in the hierarchy, makes the decision of the appointment scheduling to maximize its own profit while simultaneously minimizing surplus capacity. Doctor wage and demand are considered as fuzzy variables to better describe the real-life situation. Then we use chance operator to handle the model with fuzzy parameters and equivalently transform the appointment scheduling model into a crisp model. Moreover, interactive algorithm based on satisfaction is employed to convert the bilevel programming into a single level programming, in order to make it solvable. Finally, the numerical experiments were executed to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

New appointment at the IAEA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

The document gives short information on the biography of Professor Dr. Werner Burkart from Germany who was appointed (as of July 2000) as Deputy Director General, Head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA

The Application of The Double Queue Asymmetric Gated Service Polling Control Theory in Intelligent Traffic System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhao Yi Fan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available paper presents a new use of double queues asymmetric gated service polling system in the intelligent traffic light control system.Usually there are more vehicles in main road than minor road,so there are more green light time be needed in the main road.From the computer simulation and theory analysis,we can find that the application of double queues asymmetric gated service polling theory in intelligent traffic system can balance intersections load and set suitable passing time for vehicles to assure the roads open.

MR flow measurements for assessment of the pulmonary, systemic and bronchosystemic circulation: Impact of different ECG gating methods and breathing schema

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ley, Sebastian; Ley-Zaporozhan, Julia; Kreitner, Karl-Friedrich; Iliyushenko, Svitlana; Puderbach, Michael; Hosch, Waldemar; Wenz, Heiner; Schenk, Jens-Peter; Kauczor, Hans-Ulrich

2007-01-01

Purpose: Different ECG gating techniques are available for MR phase-contrast (PC) flow measurements. Until now no study has reported the impact of different ECG gating techniques on quantitative flow parameters. The goal was to evaluate the impact of the gating method and the breathing schema on the pulmonary, systemic and bronchosystemic circulation. Material and methods: Twenty volunteers were examined (1.5 T) with free breathing phase-contrast flow (PC-flow) measurements with prospective (free-prospective) and retrospective (free-retrospective) ECG gating. Additionally, expiratory breath-hold retrospective ECG gated measurements (bh-retrospective) were performed. Blood flow per minute; peak velocity and time to peak velocity were compared. The clinically important difference between the systemic and pulmonary circulation (bronchosystemic shunt) was calculated. Results: Blood flow per minute was lowest for free-prospective (6 l/min, pulmonary trunc) and highest for bh-retrospective measurements (6.9 l/min, pulmonary trunc). No clinically significant difference in peak velocity was assessed (82-83 cm/s pulmonary trunc, 109-113 cm/s aorta). Time to peak velocity was shorter for retro-gated free-retrospective and bh-retrospective than for pro-gated free-prospective. The difference between systemic and pulmonary measurements was least for the free-retrospective technique. Conclusion: The type of gating has a significant impact on flow measurements. Therefore, it is important to use the same ECG gating method, especially for follow-up examinations. Retrospective ECG gated free breathing measurements allow for the most precise assessment of the bronchosystemic blood flow and should be used in clinical routine

7 CFR 1260.145 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BEEF PROMOTION AND RESEARCH Beef Promotion and Research Order Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board § 1260.145 Appointment. (a) From...

7 CFR 1221.103 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS... INFORMATION ORDER Sorghum Promotion, Research, and Information Order Sorghum Promotion, Research, and Information Board § 1221.103 Appointment. From the nominations made pursuant to § 1221.101, the Secretary...

5 CFR 330.1106 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS RECRUITMENT, SELECTION, AND PLACEMENT (GENERAL) Federal Employment Priority Consideration Program for Displaced Employees of the... under Public Law 105-274. For employees appointed before October 21, 1998, the conversion will be...

Intrinsic respiratory gating in small-animal CT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bartling, Soenke H.; Dinkel, Julien; Kauczor, Hans-Ulrich; Stiller, Wolfram; Semmler, Wolfhard; Grasruck, Michael; Madisch, Ijad; Gupta, Rajiv; Kiessling, Fabian

2008-01-01

Gating in small-animal CT imaging can compensate artefacts caused by physiological motion during scanning. However, all published gating approaches for small animals rely on additional hardware to derive the gating signals. In contrast, in this study a novel method of intrinsic respiratory gating of rodents was developed and tested for mice (n=5), rats (n=5) and rabbits (n=2) in a flat-panel cone-beam CT system. In a consensus read image quality was compared with that of non-gated and retrospective extrinsically gated scans performed using a pneumatic cushion. In comparison to non-gated images, image quality improved significantly using intrinsic and extrinsic gating. Delineation of diaphragm and lung structure improved in all animals. Image quality of intrinsically gated CT was judged to be equivalent to extrinsically gated ones. Additionally 4D datasets were calculated using both gating methods. Values for expiratory, inspiratory and tidal lung volumes determined with the two gating methods were comparable and correlated well with values known from the literature. We could show that intrinsic respiratory gating in rodents makes additional gating hardware and preparatory efforts superfluous. This method improves image quality and allows derivation of functional data. Therefore it bears the potential to find wide applications in small-animal CT imaging. (orig.)

Seven channel gated charge to time converter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stubbs, R J; Waddoup, W D [Durham Univ. (UK)

1977-11-01

By using a hybrid integrated circuit seven independent gated charge to time converters have been constructed in a single width NIM module. Gate widths from < approximately 10 ns to approximately 300 ns are possible with a resolution of 0.25 pC, linearity is better than +-1 pC over 2.5 decades of input signal height. Together with a multichannel scaling system described in the following paper one has a very powerful multichannel gated ADC system.

Evaluation of the new respiratory gating system

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Chengyu; Tang, Xiaoli; Chan, Maria

2018-01-01

Objective The newly released Respiratory Gating for Scanners (RGSC; Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA, USA) system has limited existing quality assurance (QA) protocols and pertinent publications. Herein, we report our experiences of the RGSC system acceptance and QA. Methods The RGSC system integration was tested with peripheral equipment, spatial reproducibility, and dynamic localization accuracy for regular and irregular breathing patterns, respectively. A QUASAR Respiratory Motion Phantom and a mathematical fitting method were used for data acquisition and analysis. Results The results showed that the RGSC system could accurately measure regular motion periods of 3–10 s. For irregular breathing patterns, differences from the existing Real-time Position Management (RPM; Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA) system were observed. For dynamic localization measurements, the RGSC system showed 76% agreement with the programmed test data within ±5% tolerance in terms of fitting period. As s comparison, the RPM system showed 66% agreement within ±5% tolerance, and 65% for the RGSC versus RPM measurements. Conclusions New functions and positioning accuracy improve the RGSC system’s ability to achieve higher dynamic treatment precision. A 4D phantom is helpful for the QA tests. Further investigation is required for the whole RGSC system performance QA. PMID:29722356

7 CFR 1280.204 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Appointment. 1280.204 Section 1280.204 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS... INFORMATION ORDER Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information Order Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information...

Simultaneous gates in frequency-crowded multilevel systems using fast, robust, analytic control shapes

Science.gov (United States)

Theis, L. S.; Motzoi, F.; Wilhelm, F. K.

2016-01-01

We present a few-parameter ansatz for pulses to implement a broad set of simultaneous single-qubit rotations in frequency-crowded multilevel systems. Specifically, we consider a system of two qutrits whose working and leakage transitions suffer from spectral crowding (detuned by δ ). In order to achieve precise controllability, we make use of two driving fields (each having two quadratures) at two different tones to simultaneously apply arbitrary combinations of rotations about axes in the X -Y plane to both qubits. Expanding the waveforms in terms of Hanning windows, we show how analytic pulses containing smooth and composite-pulse features can easily achieve gate errors less than 10-4 and considerably outperform known adiabatic techniques. Moreover, we find a generalization of the WAHWAH (Weak AnHarmonicity With Average Hamiltonian) method by Schutjens et al. [R. Schutjens, F. A. Dagga, D. J. Egger, and F. K. Wilhelm, Phys. Rev. A 88, 052330 (2013)], 10.1103/PhysRevA.88.052330 that allows precise separate single-qubit rotations for all gate times beyond a quantum speed limit. We find in all cases a quantum speed limit slightly below 2 π /δ for the gate time and show that our pulses are robust against variations in system parameters and filtering due to transfer functions, making them suitable for experimental implementations.

100-nm gate lithography for double-gate transistors

Science.gov (United States)

Krasnoperova, Azalia A.; Zhang, Ying; Babich, Inna V.; Treichler, John; Yoon, Jung H.; Guarini, Kathryn; Solomon, Paul M.

2001-09-01

The double gate field effect transistor (FET) is an exploratory device that promises certain performance advantages compared to traditional CMOS FETs. It can be scaled down further than the traditional devices because of the greater electrostatic control by the gates on the channel (about twice as short a channel length for the same gate oxide thickness), has steeper sub-threshold slope and about double the current for the same width. This paper presents lithographic results for double gate FET's developed at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center. The device is built on bonded wafers with top and bottom gates self-aligned to each other. The channel is sandwiched between the top and bottom polysilicon gates and the gate length is defined using DUV lithography. An alternating phase shift mask was used to pattern gates with critical dimensions of 75 nm, 100 nm and 125 nm in photoresist. 50 nm gates in photoresist have also been patterned by 20% over-exposure of nominal 100 nm lines. No trim mask was needed because of a specific way the device was laid out. UV110 photoresist from Shipley on AR-3 antireflective layer were used. Process windows, developed and etched patterns are presented.

Fake passports and appointed communities: Nation and transnationalism in the Danish asylum system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Whyte, Zachary

2003-01-01

Nationality underwrites a great deal of the Danish asylum process, and of the refugee regime as a whole. The housing and care of asylum seekers, handled by the Danish Red Cross, is based on classifications by nationality. Bending a phrase from Benedict Anderson, these might be called "appointed...... communities". While the Danish asylum system in principle performs individual determination procedures for asylum seekers, granting refugee status on a case-by-case basis, in practice those identified as Iraqi or Afghani have had a very high acceptance rate. However, it is clearly the case that not all asylum...... seekers have citizenship of the countries they claim to come from, or indeed feel they come from the countries of which they have citizenship. In this context, we must enquire about the mechanics of determining nationality and about how asylum seekers themselves relate to national identities. I argue...

Fault Tree Analysis with Temporal Gates and Model Checking Technique for Qualitative System Safety Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koh, Kwang Yong; Seong, Poong Hyun

2010-01-01

Fault tree analysis (FTA) has suffered from several drawbacks such that it uses only static gates and hence can not capture dynamic behaviors of the complex system precisely, and it is in lack of rigorous semantics, and reasoning process which is to check whether basic events really cause top events is done manually and hence very labor-intensive and time-consuming for the complex systems while it has been one of the most widely used safety analysis technique in nuclear industry. Although several attempts have been made to overcome this problem, they can not still do absolute or actual time modeling because they adapt relative time concept and can capture only sequential behaviors of the system. In this work, to resolve the problems, FTA and model checking are integrated to provide formal, automated and qualitative assistance to informal and/or quantitative safety analysis. Our approach proposes to build a formal model of the system together with fault trees. We introduce several temporal gates based on timed computational tree logic (TCTL) to capture absolute time behaviors of the system and to give concrete semantics to fault tree gates to reduce errors during the analysis, and use model checking technique to automate the reasoning process of FTA

Gate-first integration of tunable work function metal gates of different thicknesses into high-k metal gates CMOS FinFETs for multi- VTh engineering

KAUST Repository

Hussain, Muhammad Mustafa; Smith, Casey Eben; Harris, Harlan Rusty; Young, Chadwin; Tseng, Hsinghuang; Jammy, Rajarao

2010-01-01

Gate-first integration of tunable work function metal gates of different thicknesses (320 nm) into high-k/metal gates CMOS FinFETs was demonstrated to achieve multiple threshold voltages (VTh) for 32-nm technology and beyond logic, memory, input/output, and system-on-a-chip applications. The fabricated devices showed excellent short-channel effect immunity (drain-induced barrier lowering ∼ 40 mV/V), nearly symmetric VTh, low T inv(∼ 1.4 nm), and high Ion(∼780μAμm) for N/PMOS without any intentional strain enhancement. © 2006 IEEE.

Gate-first integration of tunable work function metal gates of different thicknesses into high-k metal gates CMOS FinFETs for multi- VTh engineering

KAUST Repository

Hussain, Muhammad Mustafa

2010-03-01

Gate-first integration of tunable work function metal gates of different thicknesses (320 nm) into high-k/metal gates CMOS FinFETs was demonstrated to achieve multiple threshold voltages (VTh) for 32-nm technology and beyond logic, memory, input/output, and system-on-a-chip applications. The fabricated devices showed excellent short-channel effect immunity (drain-induced barrier lowering ∼ 40 mV/V), nearly symmetric VTh, low T inv(∼ 1.4 nm), and high Ion(∼780μAμm) for N/PMOS without any intentional strain enhancement. © 2006 IEEE.

Practical principles in appointment scheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuiper, A.; Mandjes, M.

2015-01-01

Appointment schedules aim at achieving a proper balance between the conflicting interests of the service provider and her clients: a primary objective of the service provider is to fully utilize her available time, whereas clients want to avoid excessive waiting times. Setting up schedules that

Edge-on gating effect in molecular wires.

Science.gov (United States)

Lo, Wai-Yip; Bi, Wuguo; Li, Lianwei; Jung, In Hwan; Yu, Luping

2015-02-11

This work demonstrates edge-on chemical gating effect in molecular wires utilizing the pyridinoparacyclophane (PC) moiety as the gate. Different substituents with varied electronic demands are attached to the gate to simulate the effect of varying gating voltages similar to that in field-effect transistor (FET). It was observed that the orbital energy level and charge carrier's tunneling barriers can be tuned by changing the gating group from strong electron acceptors to strong electron donors. The single molecule conductance and current-voltage characteristics of this molecular system are truly similar to those expected for an actual single molecular transistor.

Appointment keeping for medical review among patients with selected chronic diseases in an urban area of Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalyango, Joan Nakayaga; Hall, Maurice; Karamagi, Charles

2014-01-01

Proper management of chronic diseases is important for prevention of disease complications and yet some patients miss appointments for medical review thereby missing the opportunity for proper monitoring of their disease conditions. There is limited information on missed appointments among chronic disease patients in resource limited settings. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of missed appointments for medical review and associated factors among chronic disease patients in an urban area of Uganda. Patients or caregivers of children with chronic diseases were identified as they bought medicines from a community pharmacy. They were visited at home to access their medical documents and those whose chronic disease status was ascertained were enrolled. The data was collected using: questionnaires, review of medical documents, and in-depth interviews with chronic disease patients. The prevalence of missed appointments was 42% (95%CI = 35-49%). The factors associated with missed appointments were: monthly income ≤30US Dollars (OR = 2.56, CI = 1.25-5.26), affording less than half of prescribed drugs (OR = 3.92, CI = 1.64-9.40), not experiencing adverse events (OR = 2.66, CI = 1.26-5.61), not sure if treatment helps (OR = 2.84, CI = 1.047.77), not having a medicines administration schedule (OR = 6.77, CI = 2.11-21.68), and increasing number of drugs (OR = 0.72, CI = 0.53-0.98). Patients missed appointments mainly due to: financial and health system barriers, conflicting commitments with appointments, and perceptions of the disease condition. Patients should be supported with accessible and affordable health services.

End-expiration respiratory gating for a high-resolution stationary cardiac SPECT system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, Chung; Sinusas, Albert J; Liu, Chi; Harris, Mark; Le, Max; Biondi, James; Grobshtein, Yariv; Liu, Yi-Hwa

2014-01-01

Respiratory and cardiac motions can degrade myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) image quality and reduce defect detection and quantitative accuracy. In this study, we developed a dual respiratory and cardiac gating system for a high-resolution fully stationary cardiac SPECT scanner in order to improve the image quality and defect detection. Respiratory motion was monitored using a compressive sensor pillow connected to a dual respiratory–cardiac gating box, which sends cardiac triggers only during end-expiration phases to the single cardiac trigger input on the SPECT scanners. The listmode data were rebinned retrospectively into end-expiration frames for respiratory motion reduction or eight cardiac gates only during end-expiration phases to compensate for both respiratory and cardiac motions. The proposed method was first validated on a motion phantom in the presence and absence of multiple perfusion defects, and then applied on 11 patient studies with and without perfusion defects. In the normal phantom studies, the end-expiration gated SPECT (EXG-SPECT) reduced respiratory motion blur and increased myocardium to blood pool contrast by 51.2% as compared to the ungated images. The proposed method also yielded an average of 11.2% increase in myocardium to defect contrast as compared to the ungated images in the phantom studies with perfusion defects. In the patient studies, EXG-SPECT significantly improved the myocardium to blood pool contrast (p < 0.005) by 24% on average as compared to the ungated images, and led to improved perfusion uniformity across segments on polar maps for normal patients. For a patient with defect, EXG-SPECT improved the defect contrast and definition. The dual respiratory–cardiac gating further reduced the blurring effect, increased the myocardium to blood pool contrast significantly by 36% (p < 0.05) compared to EXG-SPECT, and further improved defect characteristics and visualization of fine structures at the expense of increased

Gating-ML: XML-based gating descriptions in flow cytometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Spidlen, Josef; Leif, Robert C; Moore, Wayne; Roederer, Mario; Brinkman, Ryan R

2008-12-01

The lack of software interoperability with respect to gating due to lack of a standardized mechanism for data exchange has traditionally been a bottleneck, preventing reproducibility of flow cytometry (FCM) data analysis and the usage of multiple analytical tools. To facilitate interoperability among FCM data analysis tools, members of the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) Data Standards Task Force (DSTF) have developed an XML-based mechanism to formally describe gates (Gating-ML). Gating-ML, an open specification for encoding gating, data transformations and compensation, has been adopted by the ISAC DSTF as a Candidate Recommendation. Gating-ML can facilitate exchange of gating descriptions the same way that FCS facilitated for exchange of raw FCM data. Its adoption will open new collaborative opportunities as well as possibilities for advanced analyses and methods development. The ISAC DSTF is satisfied that the standard addresses the requirements for a gating exchange standard.

Scheduling patient appointments via multilevel template: a case study in chemotherapy

OpenAIRE

Condotta, A; Shakhlevich, NV

2014-01-01

This paper studies a multi-criteria optimization problem which appears in the context of booking chemotherapy appointments. The main feature of the model under study is the requirement to book for each patient multiple appointments which should follow a pre-specified multi-day pattern. Each appointment involves several nurse activities which should also follow a pre-specified intra-day pattern. The main objectives are to minimize patients’ waiting times and peaks of nurses’ workload for an ou...

Penn State DOE GATE Program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anstrom, Joel

2012-08-31

The Graduate Automotive Technology Education (GATE) Program at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) was established in October 1998 pursuant to an award from the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE). The focus area of the Penn State GATE Program is advanced energy storage systems for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Appointment Template Redesign in a Women's Health Clinic Using Clinical Constraints to Improve Service Quality and Efficiency.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Y; Verduzco, S

2015-01-01

Patient wait time is a critical element of access to care that has long been recognized as a major problem in modern outpatient health care delivery systems. It impacts patient and medical staff productivity, stress, quality and efficiency of medical care, as well as health-care cost and availability. This study was conducted in a Women's Health Clinic. The objective was to improve clinic service quality by redesigning patient appointment template using the clinical constraints. The proposed scheduling template consisted of two key elements: the redesign of appointment types and the determination of the length of time slots using defined constraints. The re-classification technique was used for the redesign of appointment visit types to capture service variation for scheduling purposes. Then, the appointment length was determined by incorporating clinic constraints or goals, such as patient wait time, physician idle time, overtime, finish time, lunch hours, when the last appointment was scheduled, and the desired number of appointment slots, to converge the optimal length of appointment slots for each visit type. The redesigned template was implemented and the results indicated a 73% reduction in average patient waiting from the reported 40 to 11 minutes. The patient no-show rate was reduced by 4% from 24% to 20%. The morning section on average finished about 11:50 am. The clinic day was finished around 4:45 pm. Provider average idle time was estimated to be about 5 minutes, which can be used for charting/documenting patients. This study provided an alternative method of redesigning appointment scheduling templates using only the clinical constraints rather than the traditional way that required an objective function. This paper also documented the employed methods step by step in a real clinic setting. The implementation results concluded a significant improvement on patient wait time and no-show rate.

Emergency Gate Vibration of the Pipe-Turbine Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrej Predin

2000-01-01

Full Text Available The vibration behavior of an emergency gate situated on a horizontal-shaft Kaplan turbine is studied. The analysis and transfer of the dynamic movements of the gate are quite complex. In particular the behavior is examined of the emergency gate for the case when the power unit is disconnected from the system or there is a breakdown of the guide vane system at the moment when the maximal head and capacity are achieved. Experimental-numerical methods both in the time domain and in the frequency domain are employed. Natural vibrations characterize a first zone, corresponding to relatively small gate openings. As the gate opening increases, the vibration behavior of the gate becomes increasingly dependent on the swirl pulsations in the draft tube of the turbine. Finally, the data transfer from the model to the prototype by use of the dynamic similitude law is discussed.

High-Dimensional Single-Photon Quantum Gates: Concepts and Experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Babazadeh, Amin; Erhard, Manuel; Wang, Feiran; Malik, Mehul; Nouroozi, Rahman; Krenn, Mario; Zeilinger, Anton

2017-11-03

Transformations on quantum states form a basic building block of every quantum information system. From photonic polarization to two-level atoms, complete sets of quantum gates for a variety of qubit systems are well known. For multilevel quantum systems beyond qubits, the situation is more challenging. The orbital angular momentum modes of photons comprise one such high-dimensional system for which generation and measurement techniques are well studied. However, arbitrary transformations for such quantum states are not known. Here we experimentally demonstrate a four-dimensional generalization of the Pauli X gate and all of its integer powers on single photons carrying orbital angular momentum. Together with the well-known Z gate, this forms the first complete set of high-dimensional quantum gates implemented experimentally. The concept of the X gate is based on independent access to quantum states with different parities and can thus be generalized to other photonic degrees of freedom and potentially also to other quantum systems.

High speed gated x-ray imagers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kilkenny, J.D.; Bell, P.; Hanks, R.; Power, G.; Turner, R.E.; Wiedwald, J.

1988-01-01

Single and multi-frame gated x-ray images with time-resolution as fast as 150 psec are described. These systems are based on the gating of microchannel plates in a stripline configuration. The gating voltage comes from the avalanche breakdown of reverse biased p-n junction producing high power voltage pulses as short as 70 psec. Results from single and four frame x-ray cameras used on Nova are described. 8 refs., 9 figs

Predictors of missed appointments in patients referred for congenital or pediatric cardiac magnetic resonance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lu, Jimmy C.; Dorfman, Adam L. [C.S. Mott Children' s Hospital, Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Michigan Health System, University of Michigan Congenital Heart Center, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); C.S. Mott Children' s Hospital, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan Health System, Section of Pediatric Radiology, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Lowery, Ray; Yu, Sunkyung [C.S. Mott Children' s Hospital, Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Michigan Health System, University of Michigan Congenital Heart Center, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Ghadimi Mahani, Maryam [C.S. Mott Children' s Hospital, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan Health System, Section of Pediatric Radiology, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Agarwal, Prachi P. [University of Michigan Health System, Department of Radiology, Division of Cardiothoracic Radiology, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

2017-07-15

Congenital cardiac magnetic resonance is a limited resource because of scanner and physician availability. Missed appointments decrease scheduling efficiency, have financial implications and represent missed care opportunities. To characterize the rate of missed appointments and identify modifiable predictors. This single-center retrospective study included all patients with outpatient congenital or pediatric cardiac MR appointments from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2015. We identified missed appointments (no-shows or same-day cancellations) from the electronic medical record. We obtained demographic and clinical factors from the medical record and assessed socioeconomic factors by U.S. Census block data by patient ZIP code. Statistically significant variables (P<0.05) were included into a multivariable analysis. Of 795 outpatients (median age 18.5 years, interquartile range 13.4-27.1 years) referred for congenital cardiac MR, a total of 91 patients (11.4%) missed appointments; 28 (3.5%) missed multiple appointments. Reason for missed appointment could be identified in only 38 patients (42%), but of these, 28 (74%) were preventable or could have been identified prior to the appointment. In multivariable analysis, independent predictors of missed appointments were referral by a non-cardiologist (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 5.8, P=0.0002), referral for research (AOR 3.6, P=0.01), having public insurance (AOR 2.1, P=0.004), and having scheduled cardiac MR from November to April (AOR 1.8, P=0.01). Demographic factors can identify patients at higher risk for missing appointments. These data may inform initiatives to limit missed appointments, such as targeted education of referring providers and patients. Further data are needed to evaluate the efficacy of potential interventions. (orig.)

Directors General appointed

CERN Multimedia

1975-01-01

At a special session on 21 March, presided over by P. Levaux, the Council of the European Organization for Nuclear Research appointed J . B. Adams and L . Van Hove as Directors General of the Organization for a period of five years beginning 1 January 1976. Dr. Adams will be responsible for the administration of CERN, for the operation of the equipment and services and for the construction of buildings and major equipment. Professor Van Hove will be responsible for the research activities of the Organization.

Probing Dense Sprays with Gated, Picosecond, Digital Particle Field Holography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Trolinger

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This paper describes work that demonstrated the feasibility of producing a gated digital holography system that is capable of producing high-resolution images of three-dimensional particle and structure details deep within dense particle fields of a spray. We developed a gated picosecond digital holocamera, using optical Kerr cell gating, to demonstrate features of gated digital holography that make it an exceptional candidate for this application. The Kerr cell gate shuttered the camera after the initial burst of ballistic and snake photons had been recorded, suppressing longer path, multiple scattered illumination. By starting with a CW laser without gating and then incorporating a picosecond laser and an optical Kerr gate, we were able to assess the imaging quality of the gated holograms, and determine improvement gained by gating. We produced high quality images of 50–200 μm diameter particles, hairs and USAF resolution charts from digital holograms recorded through turbid media where more than 98% of the light was scattered from the field. The system can gate pulses as short as 3 mm in pathlength (10 ps, enabling image-improving features of the system. The experiments lead us to the conclusion that this method has an excellent capability as a diagnostics tool in dense spray combustion research.

26 CFR 20.2041-1 - Powers of appointment; in general.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... Powers of appointment; in general. (a) Introduction. A decedent's gross estate includes under section... beneficiary of a trust to assent to a periodic accounting, thereby relieving the trustee from further... 26 Internal Revenue 14 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Powers of appointment; in general. 20.2041-1...

10 CFR 1045.33 - Appointment of restricted data management official.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Appointment of restricted data management official. 1045... DECLASSIFICATION Generation and Review of Documents Containing Restricted Data and Formerly Restricted Data § 1045.33 Appointment of restricted data management official. (a) Each agency with access to RD or FRD shall...

Health Beliefs and Co-morbidities Associated with Appointment-Keeping Behavior Among HCV and HIV/HCV Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Pundhir, Pooja; North, Carol S; Fatunde, Oluwatomilade; Jain, Mamta K

2016-02-01

Appointment-keeping behavior is an important requisite for HCV linkage and treatment initiation. In this study we examine what impact hepatitis C (HCV) knowledge and attitudes has on appointment-keeping behavior among a cohort of HCV and HCV/HIV patients. Knowledge scores and attitude scales, obtained from a cross-sectional survey, were correlated with proportion of appointments kept 1 year prior to taking the survey. Independent risk factors for missing appointments were examined by multiple regression analysis. 292 HCV patients completed the survey, and 149 (51%) were co-infected with HIV. HCV patients kept 67.5 ± 17.4% of their total appointments and a similar proportion (67 ± 38.2) of Liver Clinic appointments, but they attended a higher proportion (73 ± 24.4) of Primary Care Clinic appointments. However, certain health beliefs, psychiatric illness, and HIV co-infection were independently associated with lower levels of appointment-keeping behavior. HCV knowledge was not associated with appointment-keeping behavior. Health beliefs, psychiatric illness, and HIV co-infection are associated with missing appointments, but no link between knowledge and appointment keeping behavior is apparent. In order to increase engagement into HCV care, HCV care coordination programs need to focus on addressing health beliefs and providing resources to those at highest risk for missing appointments.

The storm that rocks the boat: the systemic impact of gated communities on urban sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karina Landman

2007-09-01

Full Text Available This paper is concerned with the impact and implications of gated communities on urban sustainability. This is investigated making use of an overarching methodological framework based on the internationally accepted Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR model, developed by the OECD. Additional to the simple causal flow from drivers to responses are the dynamic relationships between these five aspects. The paper discusses each of these issues and the relationships between them as they pertain to gated communities in South Africa. Gated communities, as complex systems, necessitate the consideration of a multiplicity of feedback loops with internal rates of flow that are determined by non-linear relationships. Only in this way can the full extent of their impact and implications on urban sustainability be assessed.

Respiratory gating in cardiac PET

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lassen, Martin Lyngby; Rasmussen, Thomas; Christensen, Thomas E

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Respiratory motion due to breathing during cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) results in spatial blurring and erroneous tracer quantification. Respiratory gating might represent a solution by dividing the PET coincidence dataset into smaller respiratory phase subsets. The aim...... of our study was to compare the resulting imaging quality by the use of a time-based respiratory gating system in two groups administered either adenosine or dipyridamole as the pharmacological stress agent. METHODS AND RESULTS: Forty-eight patients were randomized to adenosine or dipyridamole cardiac...... stress (82)RB-PET. Respiratory rates and depths were measured by a respiratory gating system in addition to registering actual respiratory rates. Patients undergoing adenosine stress showed a decrease in measured respiratory rate from initial to later scan phase measurements [12.4 (±5.7) vs 5.6 (±4...

Double-gated spectral snapshots for biomolecular fluorescence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakamura, Ryosuke; Hamada, Norio; Ichida, Hideki; Tokunaga, Fumio; Kanematsu, Yasuo

2007-01-01

A versatile method to take femtosecond spectral snapshots of fluorescence has been developed based on a double gating technique in the combination of an optical Kerr gate and an image intensifier as an electrically driven gate set in front of a charge-coupled device detector. The application of a conventional optical-Kerr-gate method is limited to molecules with the short fluorescence lifetime up to a few hundred picoseconds, because long-lifetime fluorescence itself behaves as a source of the background signal due to insufficiency of the extinction ratio of polarizers employed for the Kerr gate. By using the image intensifier with the gate time of 200 ps, we have successfully suppressed the background signal and overcome the application limit of optical-Kerr-gate method. The system performance has been demonstrated by measuring time-resolved fluorescence spectra for laser dye solution and the riboflavin solution as a typical sample of biomolecule

The Interaction of Publications and Appointments: New Evidence on Academic Economists in Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Beckmann, Klaus; Schneider, Andrea

2013-01-01

Using a new panel data set comprising publication and appointment data for 889 German academic economists over a quarter of a century, we confirm the familiar hypothesis that publications are important for professorial appointments, but find only a small negative effect of appointments on subsequent research productivity, in particular if one…

Quality assurance for respiratory-gated stereotactic body radiation therapy in lung using real-time position management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakaguchi, Yuji; Maruyama, Masato; Araki, Fujio; Kouno, Tomohiro

2012-01-01

In this study, we investigated comprehensive quality assurance (QA) for respiratory-gated stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in the lungs using a real-time position management system (RPM). By using the phantom study, we evaluated dose liberality and reproducibility, and dose distributions for low monitor unite (MU), and also checked the absorbed dose at isocenter and dose profiles for the respiratory-gated exposure using RPM. Furthermore, we evaluated isocenter dose and dose distributions for respiratory-gated SBRT plans in the lungs using RPM. The maximum errors for the dose liberality were 4% for 2 MU, 1% for 4-10 MU, and 0.5% for 15 MU and 20 MU. The dose reproducibility was 2% for 1 MU and within 0.1% for 5 MU or greater. The accuracy for dose distributions was within 2% for 2 MU or greater. The dose error along a central axis for respiratory cycles of 2, 4, and 6 sec was within 1%. As for geometric accuracy, 90% and 50% isodose areas for the respiratory-gated exposure became almost 1 mm and 2 mm larger than without gating, respectively. For clinical lung-SBRT plans, the point dose at isocenter agreed within 2.1% with treatment planning system (TPS). And the pass rates of all plans for TPS were more than 96% in the gamma analysis (3 mm/3%). The geometrical accuracy and the dose accuracy of TPS calculation algorithm are more important for the dose evaluation at penumbra region for respiratory-gated SBRT in lung using RPM. (author)

Development of measurement system for radiation effect on static random access memory based field programmable gate array

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yao Zhibin; He Baoping; Zhang Fengqi; Guo Hongxia; Luo Yinhong; Wang Yuanming; Zhang Keying

2009-01-01

Based on the detailed investigation in field programmable gate array(FPGA) radiation effects theory, a measurement system for radiation effects on static random access memory(SRAM)-based FPGA was developed. The testing principle of internal memory, function and power current was introduced. The hardware and software implement means of system were presented. Some important parameters for radiation effects on SRAM-based FPGA, such as configuration RAM upset section, block RAM upset section, function fault section and single event latchup section can be gained with this system. The transmission distance of the system can be over 50 m and the maximum number of tested gates can reach one million. (authors)

Gate errors in solid-state quantum-computer architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Xuedong; Das Sarma, S.

2002-01-01

We theoretically consider possible errors in solid-state quantum computation due to the interplay of the complex solid-state environment and gate imperfections. In particular, we study two examples of gate operations in the opposite ends of the gate speed spectrum, an adiabatic gate operation in electron-spin-based quantum dot quantum computation and a sudden gate operation in Cooper-pair-box superconducting quantum computation. We evaluate quantitatively the nonadiabatic operation of a two-qubit gate in a two-electron double quantum dot. We also analyze the nonsudden pulse gate in a Cooper-pair-box-based quantum-computer model. In both cases our numerical results show strong influences of the higher excited states of the system on the gate operation, clearly demonstrating the importance of a detailed understanding of the relevant Hilbert-space structure on the quantum-computer operations

Construction of high-dimensional universal quantum logic gates using a Λ system coupled with a whispering-gallery-mode microresonator.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Ling Yan; Wang, Tie-Jun; Wang, Chuan

2016-07-11

High-dimensional quantum system provides a higher capacity of quantum channel, which exhibits potential applications in quantum information processing. However, high-dimensional universal quantum logic gates is difficult to achieve directly with only high-dimensional interaction between two quantum systems and requires a large number of two-dimensional gates to build even a small high-dimensional quantum circuits. In this paper, we propose a scheme to implement a general controlled-flip (CF) gate where the high-dimensional single photon serve as the target qudit and stationary qubits work as the control logic qudit, by employing a three-level Λ-type system coupled with a whispering-gallery-mode microresonator. In our scheme, the required number of interaction times between the photon and solid state system reduce greatly compared with the traditional method which decomposes the high-dimensional Hilbert space into 2-dimensional quantum space, and it is on a shorter temporal scale for the experimental realization. Moreover, we discuss the performance and feasibility of our hybrid CF gate, concluding that it can be easily extended to a 2n-dimensional case and it is feasible with current technology.

SU-F-J-121: Dosimetric Evaluation of Active Breathing Coordinator-Response Gating System Linked to Linear Accelerator in Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, S; Zheng, Y; Albani, D; Colussi, V; Dorth, J; Sohn, J [Case Western University, Cleveland, OH (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To reduce internal target volume (ITV), respiratory management is a must in imaging and treatment for lung, liver, and breast cancers. We investigated the dosimetric accuracy of VMAT treatment delivery with a Response™ gating system linked to linear accelerator. Methods: The Response™ gating module designed to directly control radiation beam by breath-holding with a ABC system (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) was tested for VMAT treatments. Seven VMAT plans including three conventional and four stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) cases were evaluated. Each plan was composed of two or four arcs of 6MV radiation beam with prescribed dose ranged from 1.8 to 9 Gy per fraction. Each plan was delivered continuously without gating and delivered with multiple interruptions by the ResponseTM gating module with a 20 or 30 second breath-holding period. MapCheck2 and Gafchromic EBT3 films sandwiched in MapPHAN were used to measure the delivered dose with and without gating. Films were scanned on a flatbed color scanner, and red channel was extracted for film dosimetry. Gamma analysis was performed to analyze the dosimetrical accuracy of the radiation delivery with gating. Results: The measured doses with gating remarkably agree with the planned dose distributions in the results of gamma index passing rate (within 20% isodose; >98% for 3%/3mm and >92% for 2%/2mm in MapCheck2, and >91% for 3%/3mm criteria in EBT3 film except one case which was for large target and highly modulated). No significant difference (student t-test: p-value < 0.0005) was shown between the doses delivered with and without gating. There was no indication of radiation gap or overlapping during deliver interruption in film dosimetry. Conclusion: The Response™ gating system can be safely used during VMAT treatment. The accurate performance of the gating system linked to ABC can contribute to ITV reduction for SBRT using VMAT.

Dose verification for respiratory-gated volumetric modulated arc therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Qian Jianguo; Xing Lei; Liu Wu; Luxton, Gary, E-mail: gluxton@stanford.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)

2011-08-07

A novel commercial medical linac system (TrueBeam(TM), Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA) allows respiratory-gated volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), a new modality for treating moving tumors with high precision and improved accuracy by allowing for regular motion associated with a patient's breathing during VMAT delivery. The purpose of this work is to adapt a previously-developed dose reconstruction technique to evaluate the fidelity of VMAT treatment during gated delivery under clinic-relevant periodic motion related to patient breathing. A Varian TrueBeam system was used in this study. VMAT plans were created for three patients with lung or pancreas tumors. Conventional 6 and 15 MV beams with flattening filter and high-dose-rate 10 MV beams with no flattening filter were used in these plans. Each patient plan was delivered to a phantom first without gating and then with gating for three simulated respiratory periods (3, 4.5 and 6 s). Using the adapted log-file-based dose reconstruction procedure supplemented with ion chamber array (Seven29(TM), PTW, Freiburg, Germany) measurements, the delivered dose was used to evaluate the fidelity of gated VMAT delivery. Comparison of Seven29 measurements with and without gating showed good agreement with gamma-index passing rates above 99% for 1%/1 mm dose accuracy/distance-to-agreement criteria. With original plans as reference, gamma-index passing rates were 100% for the reconstituted plans (1%/1 mm criteria) and 93.5-100% for gated Seven29 measurements (3%/3 mm criteria). In the presence of leaf error deliberately introduced into the gated delivery of a pancreas patient plan, both dose reconstruction and Seven29 measurement consistently indicated substantial dosimetric differences from the original plan. In summary, a dose reconstruction procedure was demonstrated for evaluating the accuracy of respiratory-gated VMAT delivery. This technique showed that under clinical operation, the TrueBeam system

Low-photon-number optical switch and AND/OR logic gates based on quantum dot-bimodal cavity coupling system.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Shen; Ye, Han; Yu, Zhong-Yuan; Zhang, Wen; Peng, Yi-Wei; Cheng, Xiang; Liu, Yu-Min

2016-01-11

We propose a new scheme based on quantum dot-bimodal cavity coupling system to realize all-optical switch and logic gates in low-photon-number regime. Suppression of mode transmission due to the destructive interference effect is theoretically demonstrated by driving the cavity with two orthogonally polarized pulsed lasers at certain pulse delay. The transmitted mode can be selected by designing laser pulse sequence. The optical switch with high on-off ratio emerges when considering one driving laser as the control. Moreover, the AND/OR logic gates based on photon polarization are achieved by cascading the coupling system. Both proposed optical switch and logic gates work well in ultra-low energy magnitude. Our work may enable various applications of all-optical computing and quantum information processing.

Validation of a simultaneous PET/MR system model for PET simulation using GATE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Monnier, Florian; Fayad, Hadi; Bert, Julien; Schmidt, Holger; Visvikis, Dimitris

2015-01-01

Simultaneous PET/MR acquisition shows promise in a range of applications. Simulation using GATE is an essential tool that allows obtaining the ground truth for such acquisitions and therefore helping in the development and the validation of innovative processing methods such as PET image reconstruction, attenuation correction and motion correction. The purpose of this work is to validate the GATE simulation of the Siemens Biograph mMR PET/MR system. A model of the Siemens Biograph mMR was developed. This model includes the geometry and spatial positioning of the crystals inside the scanner and the characteristics of the detection process. The accuracy of the model was tested by comparing, on a real physical phantom study, GATE simulated results to reconstructed PET images using measured results obtained from a Siemens Biograph mMR system. The same parameters such as the acquisition time and phantom position inside the scanner were fixed for our simulations. List-mode outputs were recovered in both cases and reconstructed using the OPL-EM algorithm. Several parameters were used to compare the two reconstructed images such as profile comparison, signal-to-noise ratio and activity contrast analysis. Finally patient acquired MR images were segmented and used for the simulation of corresponding PET images. The simulated and acquired sets of reconstructed phantom images showed close emission values in regions of interest with relative differences lower than 5%. The scatter fraction was within a <3% agreement. Close matching of profiles and contrast indices were obtained between simulated and corresponding acquired PET images. Our results indicate that the GATE developed Biograph mMR model is accurate in comparison to the real scanner performance and can be used for evaluating innovative processing methods for applications in clinical PET/MR protocols.

High-Fidelity Single-Shot Toffoli Gate via Quantum Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Zahedinejad, Ehsan; Ghosh, Joydip; Sanders, Barry C

2015-05-22

A single-shot Toffoli, or controlled-controlled-not, gate is desirable for classical and quantum information processing. The Toffoli gate alone is universal for reversible computing and, accompanied by the Hadamard gate, forms a universal gate set for quantum computing. The Toffoli gate is also a key ingredient for (nontopological) quantum error correction. Currently Toffoli gates are achieved by decomposing into sequentially implemented single- and two-qubit gates, which require much longer times and yields lower overall fidelities compared to a single-shot implementation. We develop a quantum-control procedure to construct a single-shot Toffoli gate for three nearest-neighbor-coupled superconducting transmon systems such that the fidelity is 99.9% and is as fast as an entangling two-qubit gate under the same realistic conditions. The gate is achieved by a nongreedy quantum control procedure using our enhanced version of the differential evolution algorithm.

Implementation of a two-qubit controlled-rotation gate based on unconventional geometric phase with a constant gating time

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yabu-uti, B.F.C.; Roversi, J.A.

2011-01-01

We propose an alternative scheme to implement a two-qubit controlled-R (rotation) gate in the hybrid atom-CCA (coupled cavities array) system. Our scheme results in a constant gating time and, with an adjustable qubit-bus coupling (atom-resonator), one can specify a particular rotation R on the target qubit. We believe that this proposal may open promising perspectives for networking quantum information processors and implementing distributed and scalable quantum computation. -- Highlights: → We propose an alternative two-qubit controlled-rotation gate implementation. → Our gate is realized in a constant gating time for any rotation. → A particular rotation on the target qubit can be specified by an adjustable qubit-bus coupling. → Our proposal may open promising perspectives for implementing distributed and scalable quantum computation.

Effectiveness of the Respiratory Gating System for Stereotectic Radiosurgery of Lung Cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Song, Heung Kwon; Kwon, Kyung Tae; Park, Cheol Su; Yang, Oh Nam; Kim, Min Su; Kim, Jeong Man [Dept. of Radiation Oncology, Asan Medical Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2005-09-15

For stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) of a tumor in the region whose movement due to respiration is significant, like Lung lower lobe, the gated therapy, which delivers radiation dose to the selected respiratory phases when tumor motion is small, was performed using the Respiratory gating system and its clinical effectiveness was evaluated. For two SRS patients with a tumor in Lung lower lobe, a marker block (infrared reflector) was attached on the abdomen. While patient' respiratory cycle was monitored with Real-time Position Management (RPM, Varian, USA), 4D CT was performed (10 phases per a cycle). Phases in which tumor motion did not change rapidly were decided as treatment phases. The treatment volume was contoured on the CT images for selected treatment phases using maximum intensity projection (MIP) method. In order to verify setup reproducibility and positional variation, 4D CT was repeated. Gross tumor volume (GTV) showed maximum movement in superior-inferior direction. For patient no 1, motion of GTV was reduced to 2.6 mm in treatment phases (30-60%), while that was 9.4 mm in full phases (0-90%) and for patient no 2, it was reduced to 2.3 mm in treatment phases (30-70%), while it was 11.7 mm in full phases (0-90%). When comparing two sets of CT images, setup errors in all the directions were within 3 mm. Since tumor motion was reduced less than 5 mm, the Respiratory gating system for SRS of Lung lower lobe is useful.

A bistable electromagnetically actuated rotary gate microvalve

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luharuka, Rajesh; Hesketh, Peter J

2008-01-01

Two types of rotary gate microvalves are developed for flow modulation in microfluidic systems. These microvalves have been tested for an open flow rate of up to 100 sccm and operate under a differential pressure of 6 psig with flow modulation of up to 100. The microvalve consists of a suspended gate that rotates in the plane of the chip to regulate flow through the orifice. The gate is suspended by a novel fully compliant in-plane rotary bistable micromechanism (IPRBM) that advantageously constrains the gate in all degrees of freedom except for in-plane rotational motion. Multiple inlet/outlet orifices provide flexibility of operating the microvalve in three different flow configurations. The rotary gate microvalve is switched with an external electromagnetic actuator. The suspended gate is made of a soft magnetic material and its electromagnetic actuation is based on the operating principle of a variable-reluctance stepper motor

Effectiveness of mobile-phone short message service (SMS reminders for ophthalmology outpatient appointments: Observational study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Car Josip

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Non-attendance for hospital outpatient appointments is a significant problem in many countries. It causes suboptimal use of clinical and administrative staff and financial losses, as well as longer waiting times. The use of Short Message Service (SMS appointment reminders potentially offers a cost-effective and time-efficient strategy to decrease non-attendance and so improve the efficiency of outpatient healthcare delivery. Methods An SMS text message was sent to patients with scheduled appointments between April and September 2006 in a hospital ophthalmology department in London, reminding them of their appointments. This group acted as the intervention group. Controls were patients with scheduled ophthalmology appointments who did not receive an SMS or any alternative reminder. Results During the period of the study, 11.2% (50/447 of patients who received an SMS appointment reminder were non-attenders, compared to 18.1% (1720/9512 who did not receive an SMS reminder. Non-attendance rates were 38% lower in patients who received an SMS reminder than in patients who did not receive a reminder (RR of non-attendance = 0.62; 95% CI = 0.48 – 0.80. Conclusion The use of SMS reminders for ophthalmology outpatient appointments was associated with a reduction of 38% in the likelihood of patients not attending their appointments, compared to no appointment reminder. The use of SMS reminders may also be more cost-effective than traditional appointment reminders and require less labour. These findings should be confirmed with a more rigorous study design before a wider roll-out.

Self-management model in the scheduling of successive appointments in rheumatology.

Science.gov (United States)

Castro Corredor, David; Cuadra Díaz, José Luis; Mateos Rodríguez, Javier José; Anino Fernández, Joaquín; Mínguez Sánchez, María Dolores; de Lara Simón, Isabel María; Tébar, María Ángeles; Añó, Encarnación; Sanz, María Dolores; Ballester, María Nieves

2018-01-08

The rheumatology service of Ciudad Real Hospital, located in an autonomous community of that same name that is nearly in the center of Spain, implemented a self-management model of successive appointments more than 10 years ago. Since then, the physicians of the department schedule follow-up visits for their patients depending on the disease, its course and ancillary tests. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the self-management model for successive appointments in the rheumatology service of Ciudad Real Hospital versus the model of external appointment management implemented in 8 of the hospital's 15 medical services. A comparative and multivariate analysis was performed to identify variables with statistically significant differences, in terms of activity and/or performance indicators and quality perceived by users. The comparison involved the self-management model for successive appointments employed in the rheumatology service of Ciudad Real Hospital and the model for external appointment management used in 8 hospital medical services between January 1 and May 31, 2016. In a database with more than 100,000 records of appointments involving the set of services included in the study, the mean waiting time and the numbers of non-appearances and rescheduling of follow-up visits in the rheumatology department were significantly lower than in the other services. The number of individuals treated in outpatient rheumatology services was 7,768, and a total of 280 patients were surveyed (response rate 63.21%). They showed great overall satisfaction, and the incidence rate of claims was low. Our results show that the self-management model of scheduling appointments has better results in terms of activity indicators and in quality perceived by users, despite the intense activity. Thus, this study could be fundamental for decision making in the management of health care organizations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and Sociedad Española de

41 CFR 302-2.4 - What is my effective transfer or appointment date?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What is my effective transfer or appointment date? 302-2.4 Section 302-2.4 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Travel Regulation System RELOCATION ALLOWANCES INTRODUCTION 2-EMPLOYEES ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS General...

Missed medical appointment among hypertensive and diabetic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Keywords: Missed medical appointments, Hypertensive, Diabetic outpatients, Medication adherence, ... 12 weeks, at 95 % confidence level and 5 % error margin, 300 hypertensive ... monthly income and health insurance status of respondents ...

Field Programmable Gate Array-based I and C Safety System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Hyun Jeong; Kim, Koh Eun; Kim, Young Geul; Kwon, Jong Soo

2014-01-01

Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)-based I and C safety system used in the operating nuclear power plants has the disadvantages of the Common Cause Failure (CCF), high maintenance costs and quick obsolescence, and then it is necessary to develop the other platform to replace the PLC. The Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based Instrument and Control (I and C) safety system is safer and more economical than Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)-based I and C safety system. Therefore, in the future, FPGA-based I and C safety system will be able to replace the PLC-based I and C safety system in the operating and the new nuclear power plants to get benefited from its safety and economic advantage. FPGA-based I and C safety system shall be implemented and verified by applying the related requirements to perform the safety function

Field Programmable Gate Array-based I and C Safety System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Hyun Jeong; Kim, Koh Eun; Kim, Young Geul; Kwon, Jong Soo [KEPCO, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-08-15

Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)-based I and C safety system used in the operating nuclear power plants has the disadvantages of the Common Cause Failure (CCF), high maintenance costs and quick obsolescence, and then it is necessary to develop the other platform to replace the PLC. The Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based Instrument and Control (I and C) safety system is safer and more economical than Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)-based I and C safety system. Therefore, in the future, FPGA-based I and C safety system will be able to replace the PLC-based I and C safety system in the operating and the new nuclear power plants to get benefited from its safety and economic advantage. FPGA-based I and C safety system shall be implemented and verified by applying the related requirements to perform the safety function.

Funnel-and-gate remediation systems augmented with passive filter wells.

Science.gov (United States)

Hudak, Paul F

2010-09-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of funnel-and-gate structures augmented with passive wells containing filter cartridges to capture contaminated groundwater in hypothetical, homogeneous and heterogeneous, unconfined aquifers. Perpendicular to groundwater flow, linear structures were 15 m wide, 1 m thick, and keyed into the base of the aquifer. Gates occupied 4 m of the total width of each simulated structure; one gate was 5 m from a contaminant plume's leading tip, while others occupied cross-gradient margins of the plume. Results suggest a modest reduction in remediation timeframes, up to 425 d per well added in these simulations; however, incremental benefits are highly variable and case specific.

Dynamic gating window for compensation of baseline shift in respiratory-gated radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pepin, Eric W.; Wu Huanmei; Shirato, Hiroki

2011-01-01

Purpose: To analyze and evaluate the necessity and use of dynamic gating techniques for compensation of baseline shift during respiratory-gated radiation therapy of lung tumors. Methods: Motion tracking data from 30 lung tumors over 592 treatment fractions were analyzed for baseline shift. The finite state model (FSM) was used to identify the end-of-exhale (EOE) breathing phase throughout each treatment fraction. Using duty cycle as an evaluation metric, several methods of end-of-exhale dynamic gating were compared: An a posteriori ideal gating window, a predictive trend-line-based gating window, and a predictive weighted point-based gating window. These methods were evaluated for each of several gating window types: Superior/inferior (SI) gating, anterior/posterior beam, lateral beam, and 3D gating. Results: In the absence of dynamic gating techniques, SI gating gave a 39.6% duty cycle. The ideal SI gating window yielded a 41.5% duty cycle. The weight-based method of dynamic SI gating yielded a duty cycle of 36.2%. The trend-line-based method yielded a duty cycle of 34.0%. Conclusions: Dynamic gating was not broadly beneficial due to a breakdown of the FSM's ability to identify the EOE phase. When the EOE phase was well defined, dynamic gating showed an improvement over static-window gating.

Quality verification for respiratory gated proton therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Eun Sook; Jang, Yo Jong; Park, Ji Yeon; Kang, Dong Yun; Yeom, Doo Seok

2013-01-01

To verify accuracy of respiratory gated proton therapy by measuring and analyzing proton beam delivered when respiratory gated proton therapy is being performed in our institute. The plan data of 3 patients who took respiratory gated proton therapy were used to deliver proton beam from proton therapy system. The manufactured moving phantom was used to apply respiratory gating system to reproduce proton beam which was partially irradiated. The key characteristics of proton beam, range, spreat-out Bragg peak (SOBP) and output factor were measured 5 times and the same categories were measured in the continuous proton beam which was not performed with respiratory gating system. Multi-layer ionization chamber was used to measure range and SOBP, and Scanditronix Wellhofer and farmer chamber was used to measure output factor. The average ranges of 3 patients (A, B, C), who had taken respiratory gated proton therapy or not, were (A) 7.226, 7.230, (B) 12.216, 12.220 and (C) 19.918, 19.920 g/cm 2 and average SOBP were (A) 4.950, 4.940, (B) 6.496, 6.512 and (C) 8.486, 8.490 g/cm 2 . And average output factor were (A) 0.985, 0.984 (B) 1.026, 1.027 and (C) 1.138, 1.136 cGy/MU. The differences of average range were -0.004, -0.004, -0.002 g/cm 2 , that of SOBP were 0.010, -0.016, -0.004 g/cm 2 and that of output factor were 0.001, -0.001, 0.002 cGy/MU. It is observed that the range, SOBP and output factor of proton beam delivered when respiratory gated proton therapy is being performed have the same beam quality with no significant difference compared to the proton beam which was continuously irradiated. Therefore, this study verified the quality of proton beam delivered when respiratory gated proton therapy and confirmed the accuracy of proton therapy using this

SU-E-T-266: Development of Evaluation System of Optimal Synchrotron Controlling Parameter for Spot Scanning Proton Therapy with Multiple Gate Irradiations in One Operation Cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamada, T; Fujii, Y; Miyamoto, N; Matsuura, T; Takao, S; Matsuzaki, Y; Koyano, H; Shirato, H; Nihongi, H; Umezawa, M; Matsuda, K; Umegaki, K

2015-01-01

Purpose: We have developed a gated spot scanning proton beam therapy system with real-time tumor-tracking. This system has the ability of multiple-gated irradiation in a single synchrotron operation cycle controlling the wait-time for consecutive gate signals during a flat-top phase so that the decrease in irradiation efficiency induced by irregular variation of gate signal is reduced. Our previous studies have shown that a 200 ms wait-time is appropriate to increase the average irradiation efficiency, but the optimal wait-time can vary patient by patient and day by day. In this research, we have developed an evaluation system of the optimal wait-time in each irradiation based on the log data of the real-time-image gated proton beam therapy (RGPT) system. Methods: The developed system consists of logger for operation of RGPT system and software for evaluation of optimal wait-time. The logger records timing of gate on/off, timing and the dose of delivered beam spots, beam energy and timing of X-ray irradiation. The evaluation software calculates irradiation time in the case of different wait-time by simulating the multiple-gated irradiation operation using several timing information. Actual data preserved in the log data are used for gate on and off time, spot irradiation time, and time moving to the next spot. Design values are used for the acceleration and deceleration times. We applied this system to a patient treated with the RGPT system. Results: The evaluation system found the optimal wait-time of 390 ms that reduced the irradiation time by about 10 %. The irradiation time with actual wait-time used in treatment was reproduced with accuracy of 0.2 ms. Conclusion: For spot scanning proton therapy system with multiple-gated irradiation in one synchrotron operation cycle, an evaluation system of the optimal wait-time in each irradiation based on log data has been developed. Funding Support: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through the FIRST

Introduction of audio gating to further reduce organ motion in breathing synchronized radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kubo, H. Dale; Wang Lili

2002-01-01

With breathing synchronized radiotherapy (BSRT), a voltage signal derived from an organ displacement detector is usually displayed on the vertical axis whereas the elapsed time is shown on the horizontal axis. The voltage gate window is set on the breathing voltage signal. Whenever the breathing signal falls between the two gate levels, a gate pulse is produced to enable the treatment machine. In this paper a new gating mechanism, audio (or time-sequence) gating, is introduced and is integrated into the existing voltage gating system. The audio gating takes advantage of the repetitive nature of the breathing signal when repetitive audio instruction is given to the patient. The audio gating is aimed at removing the regions of sharp rises and falls in the breathing signal that cannot be removed by the voltage gating. When the breathing signal falls between voltage gate levels as well as between audio-gate levels, the voltage- and audio-gated radiotherapy (ART) system will generate an AND gate pulse. When this gate pulse is received by a linear accelerator, the linear accelerator becomes 'enabled' for beam delivery and will deliver the beam when all other interlocks are removed. This paper describes a new gating mechanism and a method of recording beam-on signal, both of which are, configured into a laptop computer. The paper also presents evidence of some clinical advantages achieved with the ART system

SU-G-JeP1-08: Dual Modality Verification for Respiratory Gating Using New Real- Time Tumor Tracking Radiotherapy System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shiinoki, T; Hanazawa, H; Shibuya, K [Yamaguchi University, Ube, Yamaguchi (Japan); Kawamura, S; Koike, M; Yuasa, Y; Uehara, T; Fujimoto, K [Yamaguchi University Hospital, Ube, Yamaguchi (Japan)

2016-06-15

Purpose: The respirato ry gating system combined the TrueBeam and a new real-time tumor-tracking radiotherapy system (RTRT) was installed. The RTRT system consists of two x-ray tubes and color image intensifiers. Using fluoroscopic images, the fiducial marker which was implanted near the tumor was tracked and was used as the internal surrogate for respiratory gating. The purposes of this study was to develop the verification technique of the respiratory gating with the new RTRT using cine electronic portal image device images (EPIDs) of TrueBeam and log files of the RTRT. Methods: A patient who underwent respiratory gated SBRT of the lung using the RTRT were enrolled in this study. For a patient, the log files of three-dimensional coordinate of fiducial marker used as an internal surrogate were acquired using the RTRT. Simultaneously, the cine EPIDs were acquired during respiratory gated radiotherapy. The data acquisition was performed for one field at five sessions during the course of SBRT. The residual motion errors were calculated using the log files (E{sub log}). The fiducial marker used as an internal surrogate into the cine EPIDs was automatically extracted by in-house software based on the template-matching algorithm. The differences between the the marker positions of cine EPIDs and digitally reconstructed radiograph were calculated (E{sub EPID}). Results: Marker detection on EPID using in-house software was influenced by low image contrast. For one field during the course of SBRT, the respiratory gating using the RTRT showed the mean ± S.D. of 95{sup th} percentile E{sub EPID} were 1.3 ± 0.3 mm,1.1 ± 0.5 mm,and those of E{sub log} were 1.5 ± 0.2 mm, 1.1 ± 0.2 mm in LR and SI directions, respectively. Conclusion: We have developed the verification method of respiratory gating combined TrueBeam and new real-time tumor-tracking radiotherapy system using EPIDs and log files.

Robust Deterministic Controlled Phase-Flip Gate and Controlled-Not Gate Based on Atomic Ensembles Embedded in Double-Sided Optical Cavities

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, A.-Peng; Cheng, Liu-Yong; Guo, Qi; Zhang, Shou

2018-02-01

We first propose a scheme for controlled phase-flip gate between a flying photon qubit and the collective spin wave (magnon) of an atomic ensemble assisted by double-sided cavity quantum systems. Then we propose a deterministic controlled-not gate on magnon qubits with parity-check building blocks. Both the gates can be accomplished with 100% success probability in principle. Atomic ensemble is employed so that light-matter coupling is remarkably improved by collective enhancement. We assess the performance of the gates and the results show that they can be faithfully constituted with current experimental techniques.

Gate-keeper module for TANSY-KM5

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rydz, R.; Norberg, L.; Urholm, L.; Grosshoeg, G.

1991-01-01

The purpose of the Gate-keeper is the control of the RDCs, the ADCs, and the constant fraction discriminator. The Gate-keeper synchronizes the units and ensures that the data taking is clean and not intermixed with other events. There are six Gate-Keepers in the system, one for each proton detector. All input circuits are designed to accept TTL as well as negative NIM signals. The output is 50 ohm TTL or negative NIM as defined by internal jumpers

The design of RFID convey or belt gate systems using an antenna control unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Chong Ryol; Lee, Seung Joon; Eom, Ki Hwan

2011-01-01

This paper proposes an efficient management system utilizing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) antenna control unit which is moving along with the path of boxes of materials on the conveyor belt by manipulating a motor. The proposed antenna control unit, which is driven by a motor and is located on top of the gate, has an array structure of two antennas with parallel connection. The array structure helps improve the directivity of antenna beam pattern and the readable RFID distance due to its configuration. In the experiments, as the control unit follows moving materials, the reading time has been improved by almost three-fold compared to an RFID system employing conventional fixed antennas. The proposed system also has a recognition rate of over 99% without additional antennas for detecting the sides of a box of materials. The recognition rate meets the conditions recommended by the Electronic Product Code glbal network (EPC)global for commercializing the system, with three antennas at a 20 dBm power of reader and a conveyor belt speed of 3.17 m/s. This will enable a host of new RFID conveyor belt gate systems with increased performance.

The Design of RFID Conveyor Belt Gate Systems Using an Antenna Control Unit

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ki Hwan Eom

2011-09-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an efficient management system utilizing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID antenna control unit which is moving along with the path of boxes of materials on the conveyor belt by manipulating a motor. The proposed antenna control unit, which is driven by a motor and is located on top of the gate, has an array structure of two antennas with parallel connection. The array structure helps improve the directivity of antenna beam pattern and the readable RFID distance due to its configuration. In the experiments, as the control unit follows moving materials, the reading time has been improved by almost three-fold compared to an RFID system employing conventional fixed antennas. The proposed system also has a recognition rate of over 99% without additional antennas for detecting the sides of a box of materials. The recognition rate meets the conditions recommended by the Electronic Product Code glbal network (EPCglobal for commercializing the system, with three antennas at a 20 dBm power of reader and a conveyor belt speed of 3.17 m/s. This will enable a host of new RFID conveyor belt gate systems with increased performance.

Double optical gating

Science.gov (United States)

Gilbertson, Steve

The observation and control of dynamics in atomic and molecular targets requires the use of laser pulses with duration less than the characteristic timescale of the process which is to be manipulated. For electron dynamics, this time scale is on the order of attoseconds where 1 attosecond = 10 -18 seconds. In order to generate pulses on this time scale, different gating methods have been proposed. The idea is to extract or "gate" a single pulse from an attosecond pulse train and switch off all the other pulses. While previous methods have had some success, they are very difficult to implement and so far very few labs have access to these unique light sources. The purpose of this work is to introduce a new method, called double optical gating (DOG), and to demonstrate its effectiveness at generating high contrast single isolated attosecond pulses from multi-cycle lasers. First, the method is described in detail and is investigated in the spectral domain. The resulting attosecond pulses produced are then temporally characterized through attosecond streaking. A second method of gating, called generalized double optical gating (GDOG), is also introduced. This method allows attosecond pulse generation directly from a carrier-envelope phase un-stabilized laser system for the first time. Next the methods of DOG and GDOG are implemented in attosecond applications like high flux pulses and extreme broadband spectrum generation. Finally, the attosecond pulses themselves are used in experiments. First, an attosecond/femtosecond cross correlation is used for characterization of spatial and temporal properties of femtosecond pulses. Then, an attosecond pump, femtosecond probe experiment is conducted to observe and control electron dynamics in helium for the first time.

Controllable conditional quantum oscillations and quantum gate operations in superconducting flux qubits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Aimin; Cho Samyoung

2011-01-01

Conditional quantum oscillations are investigated for quantum gate operations in superconducting flux qubits. We present an effective Hamiltonian which describes a conditional quantum oscillation in two-qubit systems. Rabi-type quantum oscillations are discussed in implementing conditional quantum oscillations to quantum gate operations. Two conditional quantum oscillations depending on the states of control qubit can be synchronized to perform controlled-gate operations by varying system parameters. It is shown that the conditional quantum oscillations with their frequency synchronization make it possible to operate the controlled-NOT and -U gates with a very accurate gate performance rate in interacting qubit systems. Further, this scheme can be applicable to realize a controlled multi-qubit operation in various solid-state qubit systems. (author)

New appointments at the IAEA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

The document shortly presents the following new appointments: the Deputy Director General, Head of the Department of Safeguards (effective as of 1 May 1999), the Director of the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology in the Department of Nuclear Energy, and the Director of the Division of Conference and Document Services in the Department of Administration (effective as of 1 April 1999)

Characteristics and infl uence factors of mold fi lling process in permanent mold with a slot gating system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Changjun

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The main problems caused by improper gating are entrained aluminum oxide fi lms and entrapped gas. In this study, the slot gating system is employed to improve mold fi lling behavior and therefore, to improve the quality of aluminum castings produced in permanent molds. An equipment as well as operation procedures for real-time X-ray radiography of molten aluminum fl owing into permanent molds have been developed. Graphite molds transparent to X-rays are utilized which make it possible to observe the fl ow pattern through a number of vertically oriented gating systems. The investigation discovers that there are many infl uencing factors on the mold fi lling process. This paper focuses its research on some of the factors, such as the dimensions of the vertical riser and slot thickness, as well as roughness of the coating layer. The results indicate that molten metal can smoothly fi ll into casting cavity with a proper slot gating system. A bigger vertical riser, proper slot thickness and rougher coating can provide not only a better mold fi lling pattern, but also hot melt into the top of the cavity. A proper temperature gradient is obtainable, higher at the bottom and lower at the top of the casting cavity, which is in favor of feeding during casting solidifi cation.

Alstom Francis Turbine Ring Gates: from Retrofitting to Commissioning

Science.gov (United States)

A, Nguyen P.; G, Labrecque; M-O, Thibault; M, Bergeron; A, Steinhilber; D, Havard

2014-03-01

The Ring Gate synchronisation system developed by Alstom is new and patented. It uses hydraulic cylinders connected in pairs by a serial connection. The new hydraulic synchronisation system, when compared to the previous mechanical synchronisation system, has several advantages. It is a compact design; it reduces the number of mechanical components as well as maintenance costs. The new system maintains the Ring Gates robustness. The new approach is an evolution from mechanical to hydraulic synchronization assisted by electronic control. The new synchronization system eliminates several mechanical components that used to add wear and friction and which are usually difficult to adjust during maintenance. Tension chains and sprockets and associated controls are eliminated. Through the position sensors, the redundancy of the ring gate synchronization system makes it predictable and reliable. The electronic control compensates for any variation in operation, for example a leak in the hydraulic system. An emergency closing is possible without the electronic control system due to the stiffness of hydraulic serial connection in the hydraulic cylinder pairs. The Ring Gate can work safely against uneven loads and frictions. The development will be reviewed and its application discussed through commissioning results.

Alstom Francis Turbine Ring Gates: from Retrofitting to Commissioning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen P A; Labrecque G; Thibault M-O; Bergeron M; Steinhilber A; Havard D

2014-01-01

The Ring Gate synchronisation system developed by Alstom is new and patented. It uses hydraulic cylinders connected in pairs by a serial connection. The new hydraulic synchronisation system, when compared to the previous mechanical synchronisation system, has several advantages. It is a compact design; it reduces the number of mechanical components as well as maintenance costs. The new system maintains the Ring Gates robustness. The new approach is an evolution from mechanical to hydraulic synchronization assisted by electronic control. The new synchronization system eliminates several mechanical components that used to add wear and friction and which are usually difficult to adjust during maintenance. Tension chains and sprockets and associated controls are eliminated. Through the position sensors, the redundancy of the ring gate synchronization system makes it predictable and reliable. The electronic control compensates for any variation in operation, for example a leak in the hydraulic system. An emergency closing is possible without the electronic control system due to the stiffness of hydraulic serial connection in the hydraulic cylinder pairs. The Ring Gate can work safely against uneven loads and frictions. The development will be reviewed and its application discussed through commissioning results

Equal Opportunity? Gender Gaps in CEO Appointments and Executive Pay

OpenAIRE

Keloharju, Matti; Knüpfer, Samuli; Tåg, Joacim

2016-01-01

This paper uses exceptionally rich data on Swedish corporate executives and their personal characteristics to study gender gaps in CEO appointments and pay. Both gaps are sizeable: 18% for CEO appointments and 27% for pay. At most one-eight of the gaps can be attributed to observable gender differences in executives' and their firms' characteristics. Further tests suggest that unobservable gender differences in characteristics are unlikely to account for the remaining gaps. Instead, our resul...

Active gated imaging for automotive safety applications

Science.gov (United States)

Grauer, Yoav; Sonn, Ezri

2015-03-01

The paper presents the Active Gated Imaging System (AGIS), in relation to the automotive field. AGIS is based on a fast gated-camera equipped with a unique Gated-CMOS sensor, and a pulsed Illuminator, synchronized in the time domain to record images of a certain range of interest which are then processed by computer vision real-time algorithms. In recent years we have learned the system parameters which are most beneficial to night-time driving in terms of; field of view, illumination profile, resolution and processing power. AGIS provides also day-time imaging with additional capabilities, which enhances computer vision safety applications. AGIS provides an excellent candidate for camera-based Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and the path for autonomous driving, in the future, based on its outstanding low/high light-level, harsh weather conditions capabilities and 3D potential growth capabilities.

Energy-loss return gate via liquid dielectric polarization.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Taehun; Yong, Hyungseok; Kim, Banseok; Kim, Dongseob; Choi, Dukhyun; Park, Yong Tae; Lee, Sangmin

2018-04-12

There has been much research on renewable energy-harvesting techniques. However, owing to increasing energy demands, significant energy-related issues remain to be solved. Efforts aimed at reducing the amount of energy loss in electric/electronic systems are essential for reducing energy consumption and protecting the environment. Here, we design an energy-loss return gate system that reduces energy loss from electric/electronic systems by utilizing the polarization of liquid dielectrics. The use of a liquid dielectric material in the energy-loss return gate generates electrostatic potential energy while reducing the dielectric loss of the electric/electronic system. Hence, an energy-loss return gate can make breakthrough impacts possible by amplifying energy-harvesting efficiency, lowering the power consumption of electronics, and storing the returned energy. Our study indicates the potential for enhancing energy-harvesting technologies for electric/electronics systems, while increasing the widespread development of these systems.

A gating grid driver for time projection chambers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tangwancharoen, S.; Lynch, W.G.; Barney, J.; Estee, J. [National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States); Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States); Shane, R. [National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States); Tsang, M.B., E-mail: tsang@nscl.msu.edu [National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States); Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States); Zhang, Y. [Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Isobe, T.; Kurata-Nishimura, M. [RIKEN Nishina Center, Hirosawa 2-1, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan); Murakami, T. [Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kita-shirakawa, Kyoto 606–8502 (Japan); Xiao, Z.G. [Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Zhang, Y.F. [College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China)

2017-05-01

A simple but novel driver system has been developed to operate the wire gating grid of a Time Projection Chamber (TPC). This system connects the wires of the gating grid to its driver via low impedance transmission lines. When the gating grid is open, all wires have the same voltage allowing drift electrons, produced by the ionization of the detector gas molecules, to pass through to the anode wires. When the grid is closed, the wires have alternating higher and lower voltages causing the drift electrons to terminate at the more positive wires. Rapid opening of the gating grid with low pickup noise is achieved by quickly shorting the positive and negative wires to attain the average bias potential with N-type and P-type MOSFET switches. The circuit analysis and simulation software SPICE shows that the driver restores the gating grid voltage to 90% of the opening voltage in less than 0.20 µs, for small values of the termination resistors. When tested in the experimental environment of a time projection chamber larger termination resistors were chosen so that the driver opens the gating grid in 0.35 µs. In each case, opening time is basically characterized by the RC constant given by the resistance of the switches and terminating resistors and the capacitance of the gating grid and its transmission line. By adding a second pair of N-type and P-type MOSFET switches, the gating grid is closed by restoring 99% of the original charges to the wires within 3 µs.

Single-atom gating and magnetic interactions in quantum corrals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ngo, Anh T.; Kim, Eugene H.; Ulloa, Sergio E.

2017-04-01

Single-atom gating, achieved by manipulation of adatoms on a surface, has been shown in experiments to allow precise control over superposition of electronic states in quantum corrals. Using a Green's function approach, we demonstrate theoretically that such atom gating can also be used to control the coupling between magnetic degrees of freedom in these systems. Atomic gating enables control not only on the direct interaction between magnetic adatoms, but also over superpositions of many-body states which can then control long distance interactions. We illustrate this effect by considering the competition between direct exchange between magnetic impurities and the Kondo screening mediated by the host electrons, and how this is affected by gating. These results suggest that both magnetic and nonmagnetic single-atom gating may be used to investigate magnetic impurity systems with tailored interactions, and may allow the control of entanglement of different spin states.

The relevance of electrostatics for scanning-gate microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schnez, S; Guettinger, J; Stampfer, C; Ensslin, K; Ihn, T

2011-01-01

Scanning-probe techniques have been developed to extract local information from a given physical system. In particular, conductance maps obtained by means of scanning-gate microscopy (SGM), where a conducting tip of an atomic-force microscope is used as a local and movable gate, seem to present an intuitive picture of the underlying physical processes. Here, we argue that the interpretation of such images is complex and not very intuitive under certain circumstances: scanning a graphene quantum dot (QD) in the Coulomb-blockaded regime, we observe an apparent shift of features in scanning-gate images as a function of gate voltages, which cannot be a real shift of the physical system. Furthermore, we demonstrate the appearance of more than one set of Coulomb rings arising from the graphene QD. We attribute these effects to screening between the metallic tip and the gates. Our results are relevant for SGM on any kind of nanostructure, but are of particular importance for nanostructures that are not covered with a dielectric, e.g. graphene or carbon nanotube structures.

Range-Image Acquisition for Discriminated Objects in a Range-gated Robot Vision System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Seung-Kyu; Ahn, Yong-Jin; Park, Nak-Kyu; Baik, Sung-Hoon; Choi, Young-Soo; Jeong, Kyung-Min [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

The imaging capability of a surveillance vision system from harsh low-visibility environments such as in fire and detonation areas is a key function to monitor the safety of the facilities. 2D and range image data acquired from low-visibility environment are important data to assess the safety and prepare appropriate countermeasures. Passive vision systems, such as conventional camera and binocular stereo vision systems usually cannot acquire image information when the reflected light is highly scattered and absorbed by airborne particles such as fog. In addition, the image resolution captured through low-density airborne particles is decreased because the image is blurred and dimmed by the scattering, emission and absorption. Active vision systems, such as structured light vision and projected stereo vision are usually more robust for harsh environment than passive vision systems. However, the performance is considerably decreased in proportion to the density of the particles. The RGI system provides 2D and range image data from several RGI images and it moreover provides clear images from low-visibility fog and smoke environment by using the sum of time-sliced images. Nowadays, the Range-gated (RG) imaging is an emerging technology in the field of surveillance for security applications, especially in the visualization of invisible night and fog environment. Although RGI viewing was discovered in the 1960's, this technology is, nowadays becoming more applicable by virtue of the rapid development of optical and sensor technologies. Especially, this system can be adopted in robot-vision system by virtue of its compact portable configuration. In contrast to passive vision systems, this technology enables operation even in harsh environments like fog and smoke. During the past decades, several applications of this technology have been applied in target recognition and in harsh environments, such as fog, underwater vision. Also, this technology has been

Range-Image Acquisition for Discriminated Objects in a Range-gated Robot Vision System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Seung-Kyu; Ahn, Yong-Jin; Park, Nak-Kyu; Baik, Sung-Hoon; Choi, Young-Soo; Jeong, Kyung-Min

2015-01-01

The imaging capability of a surveillance vision system from harsh low-visibility environments such as in fire and detonation areas is a key function to monitor the safety of the facilities. 2D and range image data acquired from low-visibility environment are important data to assess the safety and prepare appropriate countermeasures. Passive vision systems, such as conventional camera and binocular stereo vision systems usually cannot acquire image information when the reflected light is highly scattered and absorbed by airborne particles such as fog. In addition, the image resolution captured through low-density airborne particles is decreased because the image is blurred and dimmed by the scattering, emission and absorption. Active vision systems, such as structured light vision and projected stereo vision are usually more robust for harsh environment than passive vision systems. However, the performance is considerably decreased in proportion to the density of the particles. The RGI system provides 2D and range image data from several RGI images and it moreover provides clear images from low-visibility fog and smoke environment by using the sum of time-sliced images. Nowadays, the Range-gated (RG) imaging is an emerging technology in the field of surveillance for security applications, especially in the visualization of invisible night and fog environment. Although RGI viewing was discovered in the 1960's, this technology is, nowadays becoming more applicable by virtue of the rapid development of optical and sensor technologies. Especially, this system can be adopted in robot-vision system by virtue of its compact portable configuration. In contrast to passive vision systems, this technology enables operation even in harsh environments like fog and smoke. During the past decades, several applications of this technology have been applied in target recognition and in harsh environments, such as fog, underwater vision. Also, this technology has been

Diminished auditory sensory gating during active auditory verbal hallucinations.

Science.gov (United States)

Thoma, Robert J; Meier, Andrew; Houck, Jon; Clark, Vincent P; Lewine, Jeffrey D; Turner, Jessica; Calhoun, Vince; Stephen, Julia

2017-10-01

Auditory sensory gating, assessed in a paired-click paradigm, indicates the extent to which incoming stimuli are filtered, or "gated", in auditory cortex. Gating is typically computed as the ratio of the peak amplitude of the event related potential (ERP) to a second click (S2) divided by the peak amplitude of the ERP to a first click (S1). Higher gating ratios are purportedly indicative of incomplete suppression of S2 and considered to represent sensory processing dysfunction. In schizophrenia, hallucination severity is positively correlated with gating ratios, and it was hypothesized that a failure of sensory control processes early in auditory sensation (gating) may represent a larger system failure within the auditory data stream; resulting in auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). EEG data were collected while patients (N=12) with treatment-resistant AVH pressed a button to indicate the beginning (AVH-on) and end (AVH-off) of each AVH during a paired click protocol. For each participant, separate gating ratios were computed for the P50, N100, and P200 components for each of the AVH-off and AVH-on states. AVH trait severity was assessed using the Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scales AVH Total score (PSYRATS). The results of a mixed model ANOVA revealed an overall effect for AVH state, such that gating ratios were significantly higher during the AVH-on state than during AVH-off for all three components. PSYRATS score was significantly and negatively correlated with N100 gating ratio only in the AVH-off state. These findings link onset of AVH with a failure of an empirically-defined auditory inhibition system, auditory sensory gating, and pave the way for a sensory gating model of AVH. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

MO-F-CAMPUS-J-02: Commissioning of Radiofrequency Tracking for Gated SBRT of the Liver Using Novel Motion System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

James, J; Cetnar, A; Nguyen, V; Wang, B

2015-01-01

Purpose: Tracking soft tissue targets has recently been approved as a new application of the Calypso radiofrequency tracking system allowing for gated treatment of the liver based on the motion of the target volume itself. As part of the commissioning process, an end-to-end test was performed using a 3D diode array and 6D motion platform to verify the dosimetric accuracy and establish the workflow of gated SBRT treatment of the liver using Calypso. Methods: A 4DCT scan of the ScandiDos Delta4 phantom was acquired using the HexaMotion motion platform to simulate realistic breathing motion. A VMAT plan was optimized on the end of inspiration phase of the 4DCT scan and delivered to the Delta4 phantom using the Varian TrueBeam. The treatment beam was gated by Calypso to deliver dose at the end of inspiration. The expected dose was compared to the delivered dose using gamma analysis. In addition, gating limits were investigated to determine how large the gating range can be while still maintaining dosimetric accuracy. Results: The 3%/3mm and 2%/2mm gamma pass rate for the gated treatment delivery was 100% and 98.4%, respectively. When increasing the gating limits beyond the known extent of planned motion from the 4DCT, the gamma pass rates decreased as expected. The 3%/3mm gamma pass rate for a 1, 2, and 3mm increase in gating limits were measured to be 96.0%, 92.7%, and 78.8%, respectively. Conclusion: Radiofrequency tracking was shown to be an effective way to provide gated SBRT treatment of the liver. Baseline gating limits should be determined by measuring the extent of target motion during the respiratory phases used for planning. We recommend adding 1mm to the baseline limits to provide the proper balance between treatment efficiency and dosimetric accuracy

Stability of Quantum Loops and Exchange Operations in the Construction of Quantum Computation Gates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bermúdez, D; Delgado, F

2017-01-01

Quantum information and quantum computation is a rapidly emergent field where quantum systems and their applications play a central role. In the gate version of quantum computation, the construction of universal quantum gates to manipulate quantum information is currently an intensive arena for quantum engineering. Specific properties of systems should be able to reproduce such idealized gates imitating the classically inspired computational gates. Recently, for magnetic systems driven by the bipartite Heisenberg-Ising model a universal set of gates has been realized, an alternative easy design for the Boykin set but using the Bell states as grammar. Exact control can be then used to construct specific prescriptions to achieve those gates. Physical parameters impose a challenge in the gate control. This work analyzes, based on the worst case quantum fidelity, the associated instability for the proposed set of gates. An strong performance is found in those gates for the most of quantum states involved. (paper)

Linear gate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suwono.

1978-01-01

A linear gate providing a variable gate duration from 0,40μsec to 4μsec was developed. The electronic circuity consists of a linear circuit and an enable circuit. The input signal can be either unipolar or bipolar. If the input signal is bipolar, the negative portion will be filtered. The operation of the linear gate is controlled by the application of a positive enable pulse. (author)

Controlled phase gate for solid-state charge-qubit architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schirmer, S.G.; Oi, D.K.L.; Greentree, Andrew D.

2005-01-01

We describe a mechanism for realizing a controlled phase gate for solid-state charge qubits. By augmenting the positionally defined qubit with an auxiliary state, and changing the charge distribution in the three-dot system, we are able to effectively switch the Coulombic interaction, effecting an entangling gate. We consider two architectures, and numerically investigate their robustness to gate noise

Simulation of a quantum NOT gate for a single qutrit system

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

In order to achieve a quantum NOT gate for a single qutrit, the respective Schrödinger equation is solved numerically within a two-photon rotating wave approximation. For small values of one-photon detuning, there appear decoherence effects. Meanwhile, for large values of onephoton detuning, an ideal quantum NOT gate ...

A control system based on field programmable gate array for papermaking sewage treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Zi Sheng; Xie, Chang; Xiong, Yan Qing; Liu, Zhi Qiang; Li, Qing

2013-01-01

A sewage treatment control system is designed to improve the efficiency of papermaking wastewater treatment system. The automation control system is based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), coded with Very-High-Speed Integrate Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL), compiled and simulated with Quartus. In order to ensure the stability of the data used in FPGA, the data is collected through temperature sensors, water level sensor and online PH measurement system. The automatic control system is more sensitive, and both the treatment efficiency and processing power are increased. This work provides a new method for sewage treatment control.

[Principles of nutrition in patients with newly appointed stoma].

Science.gov (United States)

Pachocka, Lucyna Małgorzata; Urbanik, Anna

2016-01-01

The treatment of intestinal stoma is often a difficult experience for patients and results in numerous problems in the physical, psychological and social aspects. Therefore, post-operative care of the patient with the newly appointed stoma should be taken by therapeutic team consisting of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dieticians, psychologists and social workers. Appropriate nutritional education of patients aims to improve their quality of life and to prevent from unpleasant ailments formed after the operation. The specific type of stoma may decide about certain dietary recommendations. The presented work provides a practical dietary recommendations for patients with newly appointed stoma.

Synthesizing biomolecule-based Boolean logic gates.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyamoto, Takafumi; Razavi, Shiva; DeRose, Robert; Inoue, Takanari

2013-02-15

One fascinating recent avenue of study in the field of synthetic biology is the creation of biomolecule-based computers. The main components of a computing device consist of an arithmetic logic unit, the control unit, memory, and the input and output devices. Boolean logic gates are at the core of the operational machinery of these parts, and hence to make biocomputers a reality, biomolecular logic gates become a necessity. Indeed, with the advent of more sophisticated biological tools, both nucleic acid- and protein-based logic systems have been generated. These devices function in the context of either test tubes or living cells and yield highly specific outputs given a set of inputs. In this review, we discuss various types of biomolecular logic gates that have been synthesized, with particular emphasis on recent developments that promise increased complexity of logic gate circuitry, improved computational speed, and potential clinical applications.

Synthesizing Biomolecule-based Boolean Logic Gates

Science.gov (United States)

Miyamoto, Takafumi; Razavi, Shiva; DeRose, Robert; Inoue, Takanari

2012-01-01

One fascinating recent avenue of study in the field of synthetic biology is the creation of biomolecule-based computers. The main components of a computing device consist of an arithmetic logic unit, the control unit, memory, and the input and output devices. Boolean logic gates are at the core of the operational machinery of these parts, hence to make biocomputers a reality, biomolecular logic gates become a necessity. Indeed, with the advent of more sophisticated biological tools, both nucleic acid- and protein-based logic systems have been generated. These devices function in the context of either test tubes or living cells and yield highly specific outputs given a set of inputs. In this review, we discuss various types of biomolecular logic gates that have been synthesized, with particular emphasis on recent developments that promise increased complexity of logic gate circuitry, improved computational speed, and potential clinical applications. PMID:23526588

Hybrid Toffoli gate on photons and quantum spins.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Ming-Xing; Ma, Song-Ya; Chen, Xiu-Bo; Wang, Xiaojun

2015-11-16

Quantum computation offers potential advantages in solving a number of interesting and difficult problems. Several controlled logic gates, the elemental building blocks of quantum computer, have been realized with various physical systems. A general technique was recently proposed that significantly reduces the realization complexity of multiple-control logic gates by harnessing multi-level information carriers. We present implementations of a key quantum circuit: the three-qubit Toffoli gate. By exploring the optical selection rules of one-sided optical microcavities, a Toffoli gate may be realized on all combinations of photon and quantum spins in the QD-cavity. The three general controlled-NOT gates are involved using an auxiliary photon with two degrees of freedom. Our results show that photons and quantum spins may be used alternatively in quantum information processing.

A quantum Fredkin gate.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Raj B; Ho, Joseph; Ferreyrol, Franck; Ralph, Timothy C; Pryde, Geoff J

2016-03-01

Minimizing the resources required to build logic gates into useful processing circuits is key to realizing quantum computers. Although the salient features of a quantum computer have been shown in proof-of-principle experiments, difficulties in scaling quantum systems have made more complex operations intractable. This is exemplified in the classical Fredkin (controlled-SWAP) gate for which, despite theoretical proposals, no quantum analog has been realized. By adding control to the SWAP unitary, we use photonic qubit logic to demonstrate the first quantum Fredkin gate, which promises many applications in quantum information and measurement. We implement example algorithms and generate the highest-fidelity three-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states to date. The technique we use allows one to add a control operation to a black-box unitary, something that is impossible in the standard circuit model. Our experiment represents the first use of this technique to control a two-qubit operation and paves the way for larger controlled circuits to be realized efficiently.

A quantum Fredkin gate

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Raj B.; Ho, Joseph; Ferreyrol, Franck; Ralph, Timothy C.; Pryde, Geoff J.

2016-01-01

Minimizing the resources required to build logic gates into useful processing circuits is key to realizing quantum computers. Although the salient features of a quantum computer have been shown in proof-of-principle experiments, difficulties in scaling quantum systems have made more complex operations intractable. This is exemplified in the classical Fredkin (controlled-SWAP) gate for which, despite theoretical proposals, no quantum analog has been realized. By adding control to the SWAP unitary, we use photonic qubit logic to demonstrate the first quantum Fredkin gate, which promises many applications in quantum information and measurement. We implement example algorithms and generate the highest-fidelity three-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states to date. The technique we use allows one to add a control operation to a black-box unitary, something that is impossible in the standard circuit model. Our experiment represents the first use of this technique to control a two-qubit operation and paves the way for larger controlled circuits to be realized efficiently. PMID:27051868

New gate opening hours

CERN Multimedia

GS Department

2009-01-01

Please note the new opening hours of the gates as well as the intersites tunnel from the 19 May 2009: GATE A 7h - 19h GATE B 24h/24 GATE C 7h - 9h\t17h - 19h GATE D 8h - 12h\t13h - 16h GATE E 7h - 9h\t17h - 19h Prévessin 24h/24 The intersites tunnel will be opened from 7h30 to 18h non stop. GS-SEM Group Infrastructure and General Services Department

Implementation of fault-tolerant quantum logic gates via optimal control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nigmatullin, R; Schirmer, S G

2009-01-01

The implementation of fault-tolerant quantum gates on encoded logic qubits is considered. It is shown that transversal implementation of logic gates based on simple geometric control ideas is problematic for realistic physical systems suffering from imperfections such as qubit inhomogeneity or uncontrollable interactions between qubits. However, this problem can be overcome by formulating the task as an optimal control problem and designing efficient algorithms to solve it. In particular, we can find solutions that implement all of the elementary logic gates in a fixed amount of time with limited control resources for the five-qubit stabilizer code. Most importantly, logic gates that are extremely difficult to implement using conventional techniques even for ideal systems, such as the T-gate for the five-qubit stabilizer code, do not appear to pose a problem for optimal control.

Maintenance Appointments in Railway Rolling Stock Rescheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.C. Wagenaar (Joris); L.G. Kroon (Leo); M.E. Schmidt (Marie)

2016-01-01

textabstractThis paper addresses the Rolling Stock Rescheduling Problem (RSRP), while taking maintenance appointments into account. After a disruption, the rolling stock of the disrupted passenger trains has to be rescheduled in order to restore a feasible rolling stock circulation. Usually, a

77 FR 62490 - Performance Review Board Appointments

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-15

... Board Appointments AGENCY: Office of Human Resource Management, Departmental Management. ACTION: Notice..., Director, Office of Human Resources Management, telephone: (202) 690-2994, email: [email protected] has a total of seven PRBs: The Secretary's PRB; Career Agency Head's PRB; Departmental Management and...

ISAC's Gating-ML 2.0 data exchange standard for gating description.

Science.gov (United States)

Spidlen, Josef; Moore, Wayne; Brinkman, Ryan R

2015-07-01

The lack of software interoperability with respect to gating has traditionally been a bottleneck preventing the use of multiple analytical tools and reproducibility of flow cytometry data analysis by independent parties. To address this issue, ISAC developed Gating-ML, a computer file format to encode and interchange gates. Gating-ML 1.5 was adopted and published as an ISAC Candidate Recommendation in 2008. Feedback during the probationary period from implementors, including major commercial software companies, instrument vendors, and the wider community, has led to a streamlined Gating-ML 2.0. Gating-ML has been significantly simplified and therefore easier to support by software tools. To aid developers, free, open source reference implementations, compliance tests, and detailed examples are provided to stimulate further commercial adoption. ISAC has approved Gating-ML as a standard ready for deployment in the public domain and encourages its support within the community as it is at a mature stage of development having undergone extensive review and testing, under both theoretical and practical conditions. © 2015 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.

Simulation Study of PET System Using GATE%基于GATE的PET系统仿真研究

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

刘豪佳; 张斌

2014-01-01

PET and SPECT is the most advanced nuclear medical imaging technology .GATE is a dedicated Monte Carlo simulation platform for PET and SPECT .This study validates two GATE models of Simens ECAT EXACT HR+PET scanner and Simens PET/CT Biograph 2.After the simulation of PET systems completed , testing and performance evaluation of simulation systems were proceeded according to NEMA 2001 performance protocols , including spatial resolution , scatter fraction and sensitivity .Test results show that , performances of GATE simulation systems agree well with the experimental values .%PET和SPECT是现代核医学最高水平的影像技术，GATE是专用于PET和SPECT的蒙特卡罗仿真工具。研究以西门子公司的PET扫描仪 ECAT EXACT HR＋和PET/CT Biograph2为原型，分别使用GATE实现其系统的完整仿真。依据NEMA 2001标准，对仿真系统的空间分辨率、散射分数和灵敏度分别进行测试与评估。测试结果表明，仿真系统性能参数和实验结果之间具有良好的一致性。

Determination of prospective displacement-based gate threshold for respiratory-gated radiation delivery from retrospective phase-based gate threshold selected at 4D CT simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vedam, S.; Archambault, L.; Starkschall, G.; Mohan, R.; Beddar, S.

2007-01-01

Four-dimensional (4D) computed tomography (CT) imaging has found increasing importance in the localization of tumor and surrounding normal structures throughout the respiratory cycle. Based on such tumor motion information, it is possible to identify the appropriate phase interval for respiratory gated treatment planning and delivery. Such a gating phase interval is determined retrospectively based on tumor motion from internal tumor displacement. However, respiratory-gated treatment is delivered prospectively based on motion determined predominantly from an external monitor. Therefore, the simulation gate threshold determined from the retrospective phase interval selected for gating at 4D CT simulation may not correspond to the delivery gate threshold that is determined from the prospective external monitor displacement at treatment delivery. The purpose of the present work is to establish a relationship between the thresholds for respiratory gating determined at CT simulation and treatment delivery, respectively. One hundred fifty external respiratory motion traces, from 90 patients, with and without audio-visual biofeedback, are analyzed. Two respiratory phase intervals, 40%-60% and 30%-70%, are chosen for respiratory gating from the 4D CT-derived tumor motion trajectory. From residual tumor displacements within each such gating phase interval, a simulation gate threshold is defined based on (a) the average and (b) the maximum respiratory displacement within the phase interval. The duty cycle for prospective gated delivery is estimated from the proportion of external monitor displacement data points within both the selected phase interval and the simulation gate threshold. The delivery gate threshold is then determined iteratively to match the above determined duty cycle. The magnitude of the difference between such gate thresholds determined at simulation and treatment delivery is quantified in each case. Phantom motion tests yielded coincidence of simulation

5 CFR 317.501 - Recruitment and selection for initial SES career appointment be achieved from the brightest and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

.... OPM may review proposed career appointments to ensure that they comply with all merit staffing... career appointment be achieved from the brightest and most diverse pool possible. 317.501 Section 317.501... EXECUTIVE SERVICE Career Appointments § 317.501 Recruitment and selection for initial SES career appointment...

MO-FG-BRA-03: A Novel Method for Characterizing Gating Response Time in Radiation Therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wiersma, R; McCabe, B; Belcher, A; Jenson, P [The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); Smith, B [University Illinois at Chicago, Orland Park, IL (United States); Aydogan, B [The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); University Illinois at Chicago, Orland Park, IL (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Low temporal latency between a gating ON/OFF signal and the LINAC beam ON/OFF during respiratory gating is critical for patient safety. Current film based methods to assess gating response have poor temporal resolution and are highly qualitative. We describe a novel method to precisely measure gating lag times at high temporal resolutions and use it to characterize the temporal response of several gating systems. Methods: A respiratory gating simulator with an oscillating platform was modified to include a linear potentiometer for position measurement. A photon diode was placed at linear accelerator isocenter for beam output measurement. The output signals of the potentiometer and diode were recorded simultaneously at 2500 Hz (0.4 millisecond (ms) sampling interval) with an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC). The techniques was used on three commercial respiratory gating systems. The ON and OFF of the beam signal were located and compared to the expected gating window for both phase and position based gating and the temporal lag times extracted using a polynomial fit method. Results: A Varian RPM system with a monoscopic IR camera was measured to have mean beam ON and OFF lag times of 98.2 ms and 89.6 ms, respectively. A Varian RPM system with a stereoscopic IR camera was measured to have mean beam ON and OFF lag times of 86.0 ms and 44.0 ms, respectively. A Calypso magnetic fiducial tracking system was measured to have mean beam ON and OFF lag times of 209.0 ms and 60.0 ms, respectively. Conclusions: A novel method allowed for quantitative determination of gating timing accuracy for several clinically used gating systems. All gating systems met the 100 ms TG-142 criteria for mean beam OFF times. For beam ON response, the Calypso system exceeded the recommended response time.

Facile fabrication of highly controllable gating systems based on the combination of inverse opal structure and dynamic covalent chemistry.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chen; Yang, Haowei; Tian, Li; Wang, Shiqiang; Gao, Ning; Zhang, Wanlin; Wang, Peng; Yin, Xianpeng; Li, Guangtao

2017-06-01

A three-dimensional (3D) inverse opal with periodic and porous structures has shown great potential for applications not only in optics and optoelectronics, but also in functional membranes. In this work, the benzaldehyde group was initially introduced into a 3D nanoporous inverse opal, serving as a platform for fabricating functional membranes. By employing the dynamic covalent approach, a highly controllable gating system was facilely fabricated to achieve modulable and reversible transport features. It was found that the physical/chemical properties and pore size of the gating system could easily be regulated through post-modification with amines. As a demonstration, the gated nanopores were modified with three kinds of amines to control the wettability, surface charge and nanopore size which in turn was exploited to achieve selective mass transport, including hydrophobic molecules, cations and anions, and the transport with respect to the physical steric hindrance. In particular, the gating system showed extraordinary reversibility and could recover to its pristine state by simply changing pH values. Due to the unlimited variety provided by the Schiff base reaction, the inverse opal described here exhibits a significant extendibility and could be easily post-modified with stimuli-responsive molecules for special purposes. Furthermore, this work can be extended to employ other dynamic covalent routes, for example Diels-Alder, ester exchange and disulfide exchange-based routes.

Pressure locking and thermal binding of gate valves

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kelly, E.M.

1996-12-01

Pressure locking and thermal binding represent potential common mode failure mechanisms that can cause safety-related power-operated gate valves to fail in the closed position, thus rendering redundant safety-related systems incapable of performing their safety functions. Supplement 6 to Generic Letter 89-10, {open_quotes}Safety-Related Motor-Operated Gate Valve Testing and Surveillance,{close_quotes} provided an acceptable approach to addressing pressure locking and thermal binding of gate valves. More recently, the NRC has issued Generic Letter 95-07, {open_quotes}Pressure Locking and Thermal Binding of Safety-Related Power-Operated Gate Valves,{close_quotes} to request that licensees take certain actions to ensure that safety-related power-operated gate valves that are susceptible to pressure locking or thermal binding are capable of performing their safety functions within the current licensing bases. Over the past two years, several plants in Region I determined that valves in certain systems were potentially susceptible to pressure locking and thermal binding, and have taken various corrective actions. The NRC Region I Systems Engineering Branch has been actively involved in the inspection of licensee actions in response to the pressure locking and thermal binding issue. Region I continues to maintain an active involvement in this area, including participation with the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation in reviewing licensee responses to Generic Letter 95-07.

SU-F-J-151: Evaluation of a Magnetic Resonance Image Gated Radiotherapy System Using a Motion Phantom and Radiochromic Film

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lamb, J; Ginn, J; O’Connell, D; Thomas, D; Agazaryan, N; Cao, M; Yang, Y; Low, D [UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Magnetic resonance image (MRI) guided radiotherapy enables gating directly on target position for soft-tissue targets in the lung and abdomen. We present a dosimetric evaluation of a commercially-available FDA-approved MRI-guided radiotherapy system’s gating performance using a MRI-compatible respiratory motion phantom and radiochromic film. Methods: The MRI-compatible phantom was capable of one-dimensional motion. The phantom consisted of a target rod containing high-contrast target inserts which moved inside a body structure containing background contrast material. The target rod was equipped with a radiochromic film insert. Treatment plans were generated for a 3 cm diameter spherical target, and delivered to the phantom at rest and in motion with and without gating. Both sinusoidal and actual tumor trajectories (two free-breathing trajectories and one repeated-breath hold) were used. Gamma comparison at 5%/3mm was used to measure fidelity to the static target dose distribution. Results: Without gating, gamma pass rates were 24–47% depending on motion trajectory. Using our clinical standard of repeated breath holds and a gating window of 3 mm with 10% of the target allowed outside the gating boundary, the gamma pass rate was 99.6%. Relaxing the gating window to 5 mm resulted in gamma pass rate of 98.6% with repeated breath holds. For all motion trajectories gated with 3 mm margin and 10% allowed out, gamma pass rates were between 64–100% (mean:87.5%). For a 5 mm margin and 10% allowed out, gamma pass rates were between 57–98% (mean: 82.49%), significantly lower than for 3 mm by paired t-test (p=0.01). Conclusion: We validated the performance of respiratory gating based on real-time cine MRI images with the only FDA-approved MRI-guided radiotherapy system. Our results suggest that repeated breath hold gating should be used when possible for best accuracy. A 3 mm gating margin is statistically significantly more accurate than a 5 mm gating margin.

Practical quantum appointment scheduling

Science.gov (United States)

Touchette, Dave; Lovitz, Benjamin; Lütkenhaus, Norbert

2018-04-01

We propose a protocol based on coherent states and linear optics operations for solving the appointment-scheduling problem. Our main protocol leaks strictly less information about each party's input than the optimal classical protocol, even when considering experimental errors. Along with the ability to generate constant-amplitude coherent states over two modes, this protocol requires the ability to transfer these modes back-and-forth between the two parties multiple times with very low losses. The implementation requirements are thus still challenging. Along the way, we develop tools to study quantum information cost of interactive protocols in the finite regime.

Free energy dissipation of the spontaneous gating of a single voltage-gated potassium channel.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jia-Zeng; Wang, Rui-Zhen

2018-02-01

Potassium channels mainly contribute to the resting potential and re-polarizations, with the potassium electrochemical gradient being maintained by the pump Na + /K + -ATPase. In this paper, we construct a stochastic model mimicking the kinetics of a potassium channel, which integrates temporal evolving of the membrane voltage and the spontaneous gating of the channel. Its stationary probability density functions (PDFs) are found to be singular at the boundaries, which result from the fact that the evolving rates of voltage are greater than the gating rates of the channel. We apply PDFs to calculate the power dissipations of the potassium current, the leakage, and the gating currents. On a physical perspective, the essential role of the system is the K + -battery charging the leakage (L-)battery. A part of power will inevitably be dissipated among the process. So, the efficiency of energy transference is calculated.

Free energy dissipation of the spontaneous gating of a single voltage-gated potassium channel

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jia-Zeng; Wang, Rui-Zhen

2018-02-01

Potassium channels mainly contribute to the resting potential and re-polarizations, with the potassium electrochemical gradient being maintained by the pump Na+/K+-ATPase. In this paper, we construct a stochastic model mimicking the kinetics of a potassium channel, which integrates temporal evolving of the membrane voltage and the spontaneous gating of the channel. Its stationary probability density functions (PDFs) are found to be singular at the boundaries, which result from the fact that the evolving rates of voltage are greater than the gating rates of the channel. We apply PDFs to calculate the power dissipations of the potassium current, the leakage, and the gating currents. On a physical perspective, the essential role of the system is the K+-battery charging the leakage (L-)battery. A part of power will inevitably be dissipated among the process. So, the efficiency of energy transference is calculated.

76 FR 78225 - Notice of Appointment of Members to the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-16

... (Appointment--3 years); Category H. ``National Food Science Organization, Dr. Mark R. McLellan, Member... specific category related to agriculture. The Board was first appointed in September 1996 and at the time... member is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to a specific category on the Board, including...

Mentorship for newly appointed physicians: a strategy for enhancing patient safety?

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, Reema; McClean, Serwaa; Lawton, Rebecca; Wright, John; Kay, Clive

2014-09-01

Mentorship is an increasingly popular innovation from business and industry that is being applied in health-care contexts. This paper explores the concept of mentorship for newly appointed physicians in their first substantive senior post, and specifically its utilization to enhance patient safety. Semi-structured face to face and telephone interviews with Medical Directors (n = 5), Deputy Medical Directors (n = 4), and Clinical Directors (n = 6) from 9 acute NHS Trusts in the Yorkshire and Humber region in the north of England. A focused thematic analysis was used. A number of beneficial outcomes were associated with mentorship for newly appointed physicians including greater personal and professional support, organizational commitment, and general well-being. Providing newly appointed senior physicians with support through mentorship was considered to enhance the safety of patient care. Mentorship may prevent or reduce active failures, be used to identify threats in the local working environment, and in the longer term, address latent threats to safety within the organization by encouraging a healthier safety culture. Offering mentorship to all newly appointed physicians in their first substantive post in health care may be a useful strategy to support the development of their clinical, professional, and personal skills in this transitional period that may also enhance the safety of patient care.

Gated Treatment Delivery Verification With On-Line Megavoltage Fluoroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tai An; Christensen, James D.; Gore, Elizabeth; Khamene, Ali; Boettger, Thomas; Li, X. Allen

2010-01-01

Purpose: To develop and clinically demonstrate the use of on-line real-time megavoltage (MV) fluoroscopy for gated treatment delivery verification. Methods and Materials: Megavoltage fluoroscopy (MVF) image sequences were acquired using a flat panel equipped for MV cone-beam CT in synchrony with the respiratory signal obtained from the Anzai gating device. The MVF images can be obtained immediately before or during gated treatment delivery. A prototype software tool (named RTReg4D) was developed to register MVF images with phase-sequenced digitally reconstructed radiograph images generated from the treatment planning system based on four-dimensional CT. The image registration can be used to reposition the patient before or during treatment delivery. To demonstrate the reliability and clinical usefulness, the system was first tested using a thoracic phantom and then prospectively in actual patient treatments under an institutional review board-approved protocol. Results: The quality of the MVF images for lung tumors is adequate for image registration with phase-sequenced digitally reconstructed radiographs. The MVF was found to be useful for monitoring inter- and intrafractional variations of tumor positions. With the planning target volume contour displayed on the MVF images, the system can verify whether the moving target stays within the planning target volume margin during gated delivery. Conclusions: The use of MVF images was found to be clinically effective in detecting discrepancies in tumor location before and during respiration-gated treatment delivery. The tools and process developed can be useful for gated treatment delivery verification.

EXTENSION EDUCATION SYMPOSIUM: Getting the most out of your extension appointment and still having a life.

Science.gov (United States)

Powers, W; Cockett, N; Lardy, G

2017-04-01

Managing the demands of an academic appointment in extension can be a challenging task. Demands from constituent groups, expectations of supervisors, and rigors of promotion and tenure processes can create pressures that young faculty did not expect. Throw in spousal and family duties and you have created a situation that many will find hard to navigate. However, there are ways to cope and, even better news, there are ways to excel in meeting the demands of an academic appointment and enjoying life. Because many new extension faculty members do not have prior experience in extension, best practices in documenting programs and extension scholarship over the pretenure period are provided in this paper. Appointments that include both research and extension are quite common at many land grant universities. The advantages of joint appointments are numerous and include the fact that more and more grant agencies are seeking integrated research, teaching, and/or extension projects. However, the time demands of joint appointments can be challenging. Joint appointments can be designed to help faculty members conduct important translational research and have it be applied in a production setting. By seeking commonalities in research and extension efforts, joint appointments can be very synergistic. Development of highly successful programs requires planning on the front end with an emphasis on an in-depth needs assessment to determine stakeholder needs for both research and extension. Impact assessment should be part of this planning effort. Performing as a successful extension faculty member while maintaining relationships outside of work is challenging and requires deliberate effort on the part of employees and supervisors to realize there is more to life than work. Some authors have referred to this as work-life balance, but it may be more helpful to think of it as work-life effectiveness. To do this, one needs to 1) define what success looks like, 2) set boundaries and

Methodology for Analysis, Modeling and Simulation of Airport Gate-waiting Delays

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jianfeng

This dissertation presents methodologies to estimate gate-waiting delays from historical data, to identify gate-waiting-delay functional causes in major U.S. airports, and to evaluate the impact of gate operation disruptions and mitigation strategies on gate-waiting delay. Airport gates are a resource of congestion in the air transportation system. When an arriving flight cannot pull into its gate, the delay it experiences is called gate-waiting delay. Some possible reasons for gate-waiting delay are: the gate is occupied, gate staff or equipment is unavailable, the weather prevents the use of the gate (e.g. lightning), or the airline has a preferred gate assignment. Gate-waiting delays potentially stay with the aircraft throughout the day (unless they are absorbed), adding costs to passengers and the airlines. As the volume of flights increases, ensuring that airport gates do not become a choke point of the system is critical. The first part of the dissertation presents a methodology for estimating gate-waiting delays based on historical, publicly available sources. Analysis of gate-waiting delays at major U.S. airports in the summer of 2007 identifies the following. (i) Gate-waiting delay is not a significant problem on majority of days; however, the worst delay days (e.g. 4% of the days at LGA) are extreme outliers. (ii) The Atlanta International Airport (ATL), the John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) experience the highest gate-waiting delays among major U.S. airports. (iii) There is a significant gate-waiting-delay difference between airlines due to a disproportional gate allocation. (iv) Gate-waiting delay is sensitive to time of a day and schedule peaks. According to basic principles of queueing theory, gate-waiting delay can be attributed to over-scheduling, higher-than-scheduled arrival rate, longer-than-scheduled gate-occupancy time, and reduced gate

Deterministic nonlinear phase gates induced by a single qubit

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Kimin; Marek, Petr; Filip, Radim

2018-05-01

We propose deterministic realizations of nonlinear phase gates by repeating a finite sequence of non-commuting Rabi interactions between a harmonic oscillator and only a single two-level ancillary qubit. We show explicitly that the key nonclassical features of the ideal cubic phase gate and the quartic phase gate are generated in the harmonic oscillator faithfully by our method. We numerically analyzed the performance of our scheme under realistic imperfections of the oscillator and the two-level system. The methodology is extended further to higher-order nonlinear phase gates. This theoretical proposal completes the set of operations required for continuous-variable quantum computation.

Men's Educational Group Appointments in Rural Nicaragua.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Bruce B; Gonzalez, Hugo; Campbell, McKenzie; Campbell, Kent

2017-03-01

Men's preventive health and wellness is largely neglected in rural Nicaragua, where a machismo culture prevents men from seeking health care. To address this issue, a men's educational group appointment model was initiated at a rural health post to increase awareness about hypertension, and to train community health leaders to measure blood pressure. Men's hypertension workshops were conducted with patient knowledge pretesting, didactic teaching, and posttesting. Pretesting and posttesting performances were recorded, blood pressures were screened, and community leaders were trained to perform sphygmomanometry. An increase in hypertension-related knowledge was observed after every workshop and community health leaders demonstrated proficiency in sphygmomanometry. In addition, several at-risk patients were identified and follow-up care arranged. Men's educational group appointments, shown to be effective in the United States in increasing patient knowledge and satisfaction, appear to function similarly in a resource-constrained environment and may be an effective mechanism for reaching underserved men in Nicaragua.

Court Appointed Volunteers for Abused and Neglected Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Justin, Renate G.

2002-02-01

A court appointed special advocate (CASA) volunteer is a trained citizen who is appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of an abused and neglected child in court. An independent voice, the volunteer gathers information and reports to the court. The CASA volunteer works in close cooperation with other professionals, physicians, lawyers, social workers, and teachers to find the most suitable permanent placement for a victimized child, whether it be a foster home, parental home, or adoptive home. Another function for CASA volunteers is to be supportive to the child during a time of uncertainty in his or her life and to help the youngster adjust to new and changing situations; the CASA volunteer may be the only consistent adult presence during this difficult period of transition.

Polling Systems with Two-Phase Gated Service: Heavy Traffic Results for the Waiting Time Distribution

NARCIS (Netherlands)

R.D. van der Mei (Rob); J.A.C. Resing

2008-01-01

htmlabstractWe study an asymmetric cyclic polling system with Poisson arrivals, general service-time and switch-over time distributions, and with so-called two-phase gated service at each queue, an interleaving scheme that aims to enforce some level of "fairness" among the different customer

An electronically controlled automatic security access gate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan A. ENOKELA

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The security challenges being encountered in many places require electronic means of controlling access to communities, recreational centres, offices, and homes. The electronically controlled automated security access gate being proposed in this work helps to prevent an unwanted access to controlled environments. This is achieved mainly through the use of a Radio Frequency (RF transmitter-receiver pair. In the design a microcontroller is programmed to decode a given sequence of keys that is entered on a keypad and commands a transmitter module to send out this code as signal at a given radio frequency. Upon reception of this RF signal by the receiver module, another microcontroller activates a driver circuitry to operate the gate automatically. The codes for the microcontrollers were written in C language and were debugged and compiled using the KEIL Micro vision 4 integrated development environment. The resultant Hex files were programmed into the memories of the microcontrollers with the aid of a universal programmer. Software simulation was carried out using the Proteus Virtual System Modeling (VSM version 7.7. A scaled-down prototype of the system was built and tested. The electronically controlled automated security access gate can be useful in providing security for homes, organizations, and automobile terminals. The four-character password required to operate the gate gives the system an increased level of security. Due to its standalone nature of operation the system is cheaper to maintain in comparison with a manually operated type.

Prevalence and Correlates of Missed First Appointments among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In Nigeria, where mental health services are poorly organized, missed appointments and its resultant consequences may be burdensome. Aim: This ... However, having received previous treatment for a psychiatric illness (P = 0.02) and having ...

Gate current for p+-poly PMOS devices under gate injection conditions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hof, A.J.; Holleman, J.; Woerlee, P.H.

2001-01-01

In current CMOS processing both n+-poly and p+-poly gates are used. The I-V –relationship and reliability of n+-poly devices are widely studied and well understood. Gate currents and reliability for p+-poly PMOS devices under gate injection conditions are not well understood. In this paper, the

Decision Support Model for Optimal Management of Coastal Gate

Science.gov (United States)

Ditthakit, Pakorn; Chittaladakorn, Suwatana

2010-05-01

The coastal areas are intensely settled by human beings owing to their fertility of natural resources. However, at present those areas are facing with water scarcity problems: inadequate water and poor water quality as a result of saltwater intrusion and inappropriate land-use management. To solve these problems, several measures have been exploited. The coastal gate construction is a structural measure widely performed in several countries. This manner requires the plan for suitably operating coastal gates. Coastal gate operation is a complicated task and usually concerns with the management of multiple purposes, which are generally conflicted one another. This paper delineates the methodology and used theories for developing decision support modeling for coastal gate operation scheduling. The developed model was based on coupling simulation and optimization model. The weighting optimization technique based on Differential Evolution (DE) was selected herein for solving multiple objective problems. The hydrodynamic and water quality models were repeatedly invoked during searching the optimal gate operations. In addition, two forecasting models:- Auto Regressive model (AR model) and Harmonic Analysis model (HA model) were applied for forecasting water levels and tide levels, respectively. To demonstrate the applicability of the developed model, it was applied to plan the operations for hypothetical system of Pak Phanang coastal gate system, located in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, southern part of Thailand. It was found that the proposed model could satisfyingly assist decision-makers for operating coastal gates under various environmental, ecological and hydraulic conditions.

SU-E-T-401: Feasibility Study of Using ABC to Gate Lung SBRT Treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cao, D; Xie, X; Shepard, D

2014-01-01

Purpose: The current SBRT treatment techniques include free breathing (FB) SBRT and gated FB SBRT. Gated FB SBRT has smaller target and less lung toxicity with longer treatment time. The recent development of direct connectivity between the ABC and linac allowing for automated beam gating. In this study, we have examined the feasibility of using ABC system to gate the lung SBRT treatment. Methods: A CIRS lung phantom with a 3cm sphere-insert and a moving chest plate was used in this study. Sinusoidal motion was used for the FB pattern. An ABC signal was imported to simulate breath holds. 4D-CT was taken in FB mode and average-intensity-projection (AIP) was used to create FB and 50% gated FB SBRT planning CT. A manually gated 3D CT scan was acquired for ABC gated SBRT planning.An SBRT plan was created for each treatment option. A surface-mapping system was used for 50% gating and ABC system was used for ABC gating. A manually gated CBCT scan was also performed to verify setup. Results: Among three options, the ABC gated plan has the smallest PTV of 35.94cc, which is 35% smaller comparing to that of the FB plan. Consequently, the V20 of the left lung reduced by 15% and 23% comparing to the 50% gated FB and FB plans, respectively. The FB plan took 4.7 minutes to deliver, while the 50% gated FB plan took 18.5 minutes. The ABC gated plan delivery took only 10.6 minutes. A stationary target with 3cm diameter was also obtained from the manually gated CBCT scan. Conclusion: A strategy for ABC gated lung SBRT was developed. ABC gating can significantly reduce the lung toxicity while maintaining the target coverage. Comparing to the 50% gated FB SBRT, ABC gated treatment can also provide less lung toxicity as well as improved delivery efficiency. This research is funded by Elekta

Transparently wrap-gated semiconductor nanowire arrays for studies of gate-controlled photoluminescence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nylund, Gustav; Storm, Kristian; Torstensson, Henrik; Wallentin, Jesper; Borgström, Magnus T.; Hessman, Dan; Samuelson, Lars [Solid State Physics, Nanometer Structure Consortium, Lund University, Box 118, S-221 00 Lund (Sweden)

2013-12-04

We present a technique to measure gate-controlled photoluminescence (PL) on arrays of semiconductor nanowire (NW) capacitors using a transparent film of Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) wrapping around the nanowires as the gate electrode. By tuning the wrap-gate voltage, it is possible to increase the PL peak intensity of an array of undoped InP NWs by more than an order of magnitude. The fine structure of the PL spectrum reveals three subpeaks whose relative peak intensities change with gate voltage. We interpret this as gate-controlled state-filling of luminescing quantum dot segments formed by zincblende stacking faults in the mainly wurtzite NW crystal structure.

Tom Brown appointed Dean of Students

OpenAIRE

Williams, Meghan

2007-01-01

James Thomas "Tom" Brown, former senior associate dean of the Dean of Students office, has been appointed as the Dean of Students. The Dean of Students office is responsible for the coordination of student advocacy, new student orientation and parent programs, and responding to student emergencies in collaboration with Judicial Affairs, Residence Life, Cook Counseling Center, Schiffert Health Center, and other departments and agencies.

Dual-Gate p-GaN Gate High Electron Mobility Transistors for Steep Subthreshold Slope.

Science.gov (United States)

Bae, Jong-Ho; Lee, Jong-Ho

2016-05-01

A steep subthreshold slope characteristic is achieved through p-GaN gate HEMT with dual-gate structure. Obtained subthreshold slope is less than 120 μV/dec. Based on the measured and simulated data obtained from single-gate device, breakdown of parasitic floating-base bipolar transistor and floating gate charged with holes are responsible to increase abruptly in drain current. In the dual-gate device, on-current degrades with high temperature but subthreshold slope is not changed. To observe the switching speed of dual-gate device and transient response of drain current are measured. According to the transient responses of drain current, switching speed of the dual-gate device is about 10(-5) sec.

Gate-keeping or free access: what do patients prefer: a European study.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zee, J. van der; Kroneman, M.; Dieteren, W.; Maarse, J.

2004-01-01

Background: Health care systems can be subdivided into systems where access to health services is largely unrestricted and systems where specific health care providers (GPs mostly) perform a ‘gate-keeping’ role. Several studies showed that ‘gate-keeping’ health care systems not only seem to be more

Report on the studies on the corrosion behaviour of the constructional materials for the gate cooling system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elayathu, N.S.D.; Balachandra, J.

1974-01-01

The gate cooling system of the Trombay R-5 reactor, now under construction, is proposed to be a laminated gate designed to operate with 50 % KBO 2 solution within the temperature limits 30 deg C and 50 deg C. With a view to find suitable constructional materials for the gate, the corrosion behaviour of stainless steel 304 L(ASTM 240-69), lead (ASTM B-29), aluminium (as Boral), neoprene, perspex and carbon steel (ASTM A 302 grade B) has been investigated in 50 % KBO 2 solution at 45 deg C. After definite periods of exposure, their coupons were examined metallographically at different magnifications to assess the nature and extent of sub-surface attack. The results show that out of the materials studied, carbon steel, lead and aluminium are more liable to corrosion in the borate solution and hence their use should be avoided. (M.G.B.)

Real-time system for respiratory-cardiac gating in positron tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klein, G.J.; Reutter, B.W.; Ho, M.H.; Huesman, R.H.; Reed, J.H.

1998-01-01

A Macintosh-based signal processing system has been developed to support simultaneous respiratory and cardiac gating on the ECAT EXACT HR PET scanner. Using the Lab-View real-time software environment, the system reads analog inputs from a pneumatic respiratory bellows and an EGG monitor to compute an appropriate histogram memory location for the PET data. Respiratory state is determined by the bellows signal amplitude; cardiac state is based on the time since the last R-wave. These two states are used in a 2D lookup table to determine a combined respiratory-cardiac state. A 4-bit address encoding the selected histogram is directed from the system to the ECAT scanner, which dynamically switches the destination of tomograph events as respiratory-cardiac state changes. to Test the switching efficiency of the combined Macintosh/ECAT system, a rotating emission phantom was built. Acquisitions with 25 msec states while the phantom was rotating at 240 rpm demonstrate the system could effectively stop motion at this rate, with approximately 5 msec switching time between states

Top-gate pentacene-based organic field-effect transistor with amorphous rubrene gate insulator

Science.gov (United States)

Hiroki, Mizuha; Maeda, Yasutaka; Ohmi, Shun-ichiro

2018-02-01

The scaling of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) is necessary for high-density integration and for this, OFETs with a top-gate configuration are required. There have been several reports of damageless lithography processes for organic semiconductor or insulator layers. However, it is still difficult to fabricate scaled OFETs with a top-gate configuration. In this study, the lift-off process and the device characteristics of the OFETs with a top-gate configuration utilizing an amorphous (α) rubrene gate insulator were investigated. We have confirmed that α-rubrene shows an insulating property, and its extracted linear mobility was 2.5 × 10-2 cm2/(V·s). The gate length and width were 10 and 60 µm, respectively. From these results, the OFET with a top-gate configuration utilizing an α-rubrene gate insulator is promising for the high-density integration of scaled OFETs.

Assessment of the Correlation between Appointment Scheduling and Patient Satisfaction in a Pediatric Dental Setup

OpenAIRE

Katre, Amar N.

2014-01-01

Introduction. The practice of modern pediatric dentistry requires delivery of quality care in combination with adherence to excellent business as well as time management principles. A definite appointment schedule should be presented to the parents on the first or second appointment. More importantly, the prescribed schedule should be followed to the best of the professional abilities of the pediatric dentist. Aims. The aim of the study was to assess the co-relation between appointment schedu...

Prevalence and Correlates of Missed First Appointments among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

quality of care, results in poor treatment outcomes and drains financial resources. In Nigeria, where mental .... and physical aggression. Each subscale has four .... missed first appointments observed in this study falls within the range of 17 and ...

Reasons for and consequences of missed appointments in general practice in the UK: questionnaire survey and prospective review of medical records

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lawlor Debbie A

2005-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Missed appointments are a common occurrence in primary care in the UK, yet little is known about the reasons for them, or the consequences of missing an appointment. This paper aims to determine the reasons for missed appointments and whether patients who miss an appointment subsequently consult their general practitioner (GP. Secondary aims are to compare psychological morbidity, and the previous appointments with GPs between subjects and a comparison group. Methods Postal questionnaire survey and prospective medical notes review of adult patients missing an appointment and the comparison group who attended appointments over a three week period in seven general practices in West Yorkshire. Results Of the 386 who missed appointments 122 (32% responded. Of the 386 in the comparison group 223 (58% responded, resulting in 23 case-control matched pairs with complete data collection. Over 40% of individuals who missed an appointment and participated said that they forgot the appointment and a quarter said that they tried very hard to cancel the appointment or that it was at an inconvenient time. A fifth reported family commitments or being too ill to attend. Over 90% of the patients who missed an appointment subsequently consulted within three months and of these nearly 60% consulted for the stated problem that was going to be presented in the missed consultation. The odds of missing an appointment decreased with increasing age and were greater among those who had missed at least one appointment in the previous 12 months. However, estimates for comparisons between those who missed appointments and the comparison group were imprecise due to the low response rate. Conclusion Patients who miss appointments tend to cite practice factors and their own forgetfulness as the main reasons for doing so, and most attend within three months of a missed appointment. This study highlights a number of implications for future research. More work

Assessing the relationship between technology readiness and continuance intention in an E-appointment system: relationship quality as a mediator.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Shih-Chih; Jong, Din; Lai, Min-Tsai

2014-09-01

Numerous types of self-service technologies have prevailed due to innovations in network and information technology. To hospitals, patient intentions to continue to use the e-appointment system are crucial. Previous investigations discussed only the relationships between the technology readiness of users and their continuance intentions, and ignored the most important mediator, relationship quality. This study explored the relationships among technology readiness, relationship quality, and continuance intention. The research results demonstrated that both optimism and innovativeness significantly and positively influenced continuance intention through the mediating effect of relationship quality. However, discomfort and insecurity hid not significantly influence relationship quality or continuance intention. Finally, theoretical contributions, managerial implications and future research directions were discussed.

Reconfigurable chaotic logic gates based on novel chaotic circuit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Behnia, S.; Pazhotan, Z.; Ezzati, N.; Akhshani, A.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A novel method for implementing logic gates based on chaotic maps is introduced. • The logic gates can be implemented without any changes in the threshold voltage. • The chaos-based logic gates may serve as basic components of future computing devices. - Abstract: The logical operations are one of the key issues in today’s computer architecture. Nowadays, there is a great interest in developing alternative ways to get the logic operations by chaos computing. In this paper, a novel implementation method of reconfigurable logic gates based on one-parameter families of chaotic maps is introduced. The special behavior of these chaotic maps can be utilized to provide same threshold voltage for all logic gates. However, there is a wide interval for choosing a control parameter for all reconfigurable logic gates. Furthermore, an experimental implementation of this nonlinear system is presented to demonstrate the robustness of computing capability of chaotic circuits

Robustness against parametric noise of nonideal holonomic gates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lupo, Cosmo; Aniello, Paolo; Napolitano, Mario; Florio, Giuseppe

2007-01-01

Holonomic gates for quantum computation are commonly considered to be robust against certain kinds of parametric noise, the cause of this robustness being the geometric character of the transformation achieved in the adiabatic limit. On the other hand, the effects of decoherence are expected to become more and more relevant when the adiabatic limit is approached. Starting from the system described by Florio et al. [Phys. Rev. A 73, 022327 (2006)], here we discuss the behavior of nonideal holonomic gates at finite operational time, i.e., long before the adiabatic limit is reached. We have considered several models of parametric noise and studied the robustness of finite-time gates. The results obtained suggest that the finite-time gates present some effects of cancellation of the perturbations introduced by the noise which mimic the geometrical cancellation effect of standard holonomic gates. Nevertheless, a careful analysis of the results leads to the conclusion that these effects are related to a dynamical instead of a geometrical feature

Robustness against parametric noise of nonideal holonomic gates

Science.gov (United States)

Lupo, Cosmo; Aniello, Paolo; Napolitano, Mario; Florio, Giuseppe

2007-07-01

Holonomic gates for quantum computation are commonly considered to be robust against certain kinds of parametric noise, the cause of this robustness being the geometric character of the transformation achieved in the adiabatic limit. On the other hand, the effects of decoherence are expected to become more and more relevant when the adiabatic limit is approached. Starting from the system described by Florio [Phys. Rev. A 73, 022327 (2006)], here we discuss the behavior of nonideal holonomic gates at finite operational time, i.e., long before the adiabatic limit is reached. We have considered several models of parametric noise and studied the robustness of finite-time gates. The results obtained suggest that the finite-time gates present some effects of cancellation of the perturbations introduced by the noise which mimic the geometrical cancellation effect of standard holonomic gates. Nevertheless, a careful analysis of the results leads to the conclusion that these effects are related to a dynamical instead of a geometrical feature.

Analytical drain current formulation for gate dielectric engineered dual material gate-gate all around-tunneling field effect transistor

Science.gov (United States)

Madan, Jaya; Gupta, R. S.; Chaujar, Rishu

2015-09-01

In this work, an analytical drain current model for gate dielectric engineered (hetero dielectric)-dual material gate-gate all around tunnel field effect transistor (HD-DMG-GAA-TFET) has been developed. Parabolic approximation has been used to solve the two-dimensional (2D) Poisson equation with appropriate boundary conditions and continuity equations to evaluate analytical expressions for surface potential, electric field, tunneling barrier width and drain current. Further, the analog performance of the device is studied for three high-k dielectrics (Si3N4, HfO2, and ZrO2), and it has been investigated that the problem of lower ION, can be overcome by using the hetero-gate architecture. Moreover, the impact of scaling the gate oxide thickness and bias variations has also been studied. The HD-DMG-GAA-TFET shows an enhanced ION of the order of 10-4 A. The effectiveness of the proposed model is validated by comparing it with ATLAS device simulations.

Improving the patient booking service to reduce the number of missed appointments at East London NHS Foundation Trust Community Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Elizabeth; Shah, Amar; De Souza, Warren; Harrison, Mark; Chettur, Chris; Onathukattil, Maimoona; Smart, Michelle; Mata, Marlon; Chitewe, Auzewell; Binley, Emma

2017-01-01

The East London National Health Service Foundation Trust (ELFT) Community Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Service had reported a high rate of non-attendance at scheduled appointments. This was leading to delayed access to treatment for patients and a reduced capacity for service users, as well as a waste of clinical resources. The aim of this quality improvement project was therefore to reduce the percentage of missed appointments within this department. This study was undertaken by the ELFT community MSK service, with support from the ELFT Quality Improvement team. To begin with, patient complaints were explored; these indicated that the main reason for missing appointments was due to issues with the patient booking service. Baseline data were initially collected for both new referrals and follow-up patients. The proposed changes were then introduced, which included text message reminders, first via a manual platform and then via an automated system. Ongoing data were recorded to note the effectiveness of these changes. Following the intervention, non-attendance of newly referred patients reduced by 43.35% (23.76%-13.46%) after both cycles. Non-attendance of follow-up patients reduced by 44.14% (23.74%-13.26%) after the second cycle alone. By listening to the opinions of service users, it was possible to improve the patient booking system and the flexibility of appointments. This resulted in a reduction in the percentage of appointments missed. These changes will continue to be monitored within this department to ensure sustainability but there is also now potential for similar interventions to be trialled in other health service departments.

A TIMELY APPOINTMENT – SAMA'S NEW CEO

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nicky

Her middle name might mean 'the one who came before her time', but Dr. Aquina Motlakapele Thulare, 42, the new CEO of the South African Medical. Association, is determined to see doctors better paid and properly valued during her tenure. Ratified by the full board last month, her historic appointment follows the.

Two-qubit gate operations in superconducting circuits with strong coupling and weak anharmonicity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lü Xinyou; Ashhab, S; Cui Wei; Wu Rebing; Nori, Franco

2012-01-01

We theoretically study the implementation of two-qubit gates in a system of two coupled superconducting qubits. In particular, we analyze two-qubit gate operations under the condition that the coupling strength is comparable with or even larger than the anharmonicity of the qubits. By numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation under the assumption of negligible decoherence, we obtain the dependence of the two-qubit gate fidelity on the system parameters in the case of both direct and indirect qubit-qubit coupling. Our numerical results can be used to identify the ‘safe’ parameter regime for experimentally implementing two-qubit gates with high fidelity in these systems. (paper)

Impact of Delayed Time to Advanced Imaging on Missed Appointments Across Different Demographic and Socioeconomic Factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Daye, Dania; Carrodeguas, Emmanuel; Glover, McKinley; Guerrier, Claude Emmanuel; Harvey, H Benjamin; Flores, Efrén J

2018-05-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of wait days (WDs) on missed outpatient MRI appointments across different demographic and socioeconomic factors. An institutional review board-approved retrospective study was conducted among adult patients scheduled for outpatient MRI during a 12-month period. Scheduling data and demographic information were obtained. Imaging missed appointments were defined as missed scheduled imaging encounters. WDs were defined as the number of days from study order to appointment. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to assess the contribution of race and socioeconomic factors to missed appointments. Linear regression was performed to assess the relationship between missed appointment rates and WDs stratified by race, income, and patient insurance groups with analysis of covariance statistics. A total of 42,727 patients met the inclusion criteria. Mean WDs were 7.95 days. Multivariate regression showed increased odds ratio for missed appointments for patients with increased WDs (7-21 days: odds ratio [OR], 1.39; >21 days: OR, 1.77), African American patients (OR, 1.71), Hispanic patients (OR, 1.30), patients with noncommercial insurance (OR, 2.00-2.55), and those with imaging performed at the main hospital campus (OR, 1.51). Missed appointment rate linearly increased with WDs, with analysis of covariance revealing underrepresented minorities and Medicaid insurance as significant effect modifiers. Increased WDs for advanced imaging significantly increases the likelihood of missed appointments. This effect is most pronounced among underrepresented minorities and patients with lower socioeconomic status. Efforts to reduce WDs may improve equity in access to and utilization of advanced diagnostic imaging for all patients. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Patient training in respiratory-gated radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kini, Vijay R.; Vedam, Subrahmanya S.; Keall, Paul J.; Patil, Sumukh; Chen, Clayton; Mohan, Radhe

2003-01-01

Respiratory gating is used to counter the effects of organ motion during radiotherapy for chest tumors. The effects of variations in patient breathing patterns during a single treatment and from day to day are unknown. We evaluated the feasibility of using patient training tools and their effect on the breathing cycle regularity and reproducibility during respiratory-gated radiotherapy. To monitor respiratory patterns, we used a component of a commercially available respiratory-gated radiotherapy system (Real Time Position Management (RPM) System, Varian Oncology Systems, Palo Alto, CA 94304). This passive marker video tracking system consists of reflective markers placed on the patient's chest or abdomen, which are detected by a wall-mounted video camera. Software installed on a PC interfaced to this camera detects the marker motion digitally and records it. The marker position as a function of time serves as the motion signal that may be used to trigger imaging or treatment. The training tools used were audio prompting and visual feedback, with free breathing as a control. The audio prompting method used instructions to 'breathe in' or 'breathe out' at periodic intervals deduced from patients' own breathing patterns. In the visual feedback method, patients were shown a real-time trace of their abdominal wall motion due to breathing. Using this, they were asked to maintain a constant amplitude of motion. Motion traces of the abdominal wall were recorded for each patient for various maneuvers. Free breathing showed a variable amplitude and frequency. Audio prompting resulted in a reproducible frequency; however, the variability and the magnitude of amplitude increased. Visual feedback gave a better control over the amplitude but showed minor variations in frequency. We concluded that training improves the reproducibility of amplitude and frequency of patient breathing cycles. This may increase the accuracy of respiratory-gated radiation therapy

Gated integrator PXI-DAQ system for Thomson scattering diagnostics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patel, Kiran, E-mail: kkpatel@ipr.res.in; Pillai, Vishal; Singh, Neha; Thomas, Jinto; Kumar, Ajai

2017-06-15

Gated Integrator (GI) PXI based data acquisition (DAQ) system has been designed and developed for the ease of acquiring fast Thomson Scattered signals (∼50 ns pulse width). The DAQ system consists of in-house designed and developed GI modules and PXI-1405 chassis with several PXI-DAQ modules. The performance of the developed system has been validated during the SST-1 campaigns. The dynamic range of the GI module depends on the integrating capacitor (C{sub i}) and the modules have been calibrated using 12 pF and 27 pF integrating capacitors. The developed GI module based data acquisition system consists of sixty four channels for simultaneous sampling using eight PXI based digitization modules having eight channels per module. The error estimation and functional tests of this unit are carried out using standard source and also with the fast detectors used for Thomson scattering diagnostics. User friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been developed using LabVIEW on Windows platform to control and acquire the Thomson scattering signal. A robust, easy to operate and maintain with low power consumption, having higher dynamic range with very good sensitivity and cost effective DAQ system is developed and tested for the SST-1 Thomson scattering diagnostics.

Respiratory gating in positron emission tomography: A quantitative comparison of different gating schemes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dawood, Mohammad; Buether, Florian; Lang, Norbert; Schober, Otmar; Schaefers, Klaus P

2007-01-01

Respiratory gating is used for reducing the effects of breathing motion in a wide range of applications from radiotherapy treatment to diagnostical imaging. Different methods are feasible for respiratory gating. In this study seven gating methods were developed and tested on positron emission tomography (PET) listmode data. The results of seven patient studies were compared quantitatively with respect to motion and noise. (1) Equal and (2) variable time-based gating methods use only the time information of the breathing cycle to define respiratory gates. (3) Equal and (4) variable amplitude-based gating approaches utilize the amplitude of the respiratory signal. (5) Cycle-based amplitude gating is a combination of time and amplitude-based techniques. A baseline correction was applied to methods (3) and (4) resulting in two new approaches: Baseline corrected (6) equal and (7) variable amplitude-based gating. Listmode PET data from seven patients were acquired together with a respiratory signal. Images were reconstructed applying the seven gating methods. Two parameters were used to quantify the results: Motion was measured as the displacement of the heart due to respiration and noise was defined as the standard deviation of pixel intensities in a background region. The amplitude-based approaches (3) and (4) were superior to the time-based methods (1) and (2). The improvement in capturing the motion was more than 30% (up to 130%) in all subjects. The variable time (2) and amplitude (4) methods had a more uniform noise distribution among all respiratory gates compared to equal time (1) and amplitude (3) methods. Baseline correction did not improve the results. Out of seven different respiratory gating approaches, the variable amplitude method (4) captures the respiratory motion best while keeping a constant noise level among all respiratory phases

A gate drive circuit for gate-turn-off (GTO) devices in series stack

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Despe, O.

1999-01-01

A gate-turn-off (GTO) switch is under development at the Advanced Photon Source as a replacement for a thyratron switch in high power pulsed application. The high voltage in the application requires multiple GTOs connected in series. One component that is critical to the success of GTO operation is the gate drive circuit. The gate drive circuit has to provide fast high-current pulses to the GTO gate for fast turn-on and turn-off. It also has to be able to operate while floating at high voltage. This paper describes a gate drive circuit that meets these requirements

[HIV infection and syphilis prevalence among men who have sex with men receiving voluntary counseling and testing appointed through a web-based registering system and related factors].

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Qiongmiao; Cheng, Weibin; Zhong, Fei; Xu, Huifang; Liu, Qi; Lin, Peng

2015-05-01

To understand the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection status and syphilis prevalence among men who have sex with men (MSM) receiving voluntary counseling and testing appointed through a web-based registering system and related factors. The MSM receiving web appointed HIV counseling and testing from 2011 to 2012 in Guangzhou were recruited and a questionnaire survey was conduct among them to obtain the information about their demographic characteristics and sexual behavior. Binary and multivariate logistic regression model were used to identify the factors associated with HIV infection or syphilis prevalence. A total of 4,904 MSM were enrolled in the study, the average age of the MSM was (28.77±7.24) years, and 70.3% of them had high education level; the unmarried MSM accounted for 72.7%. The HIV infection rate and syphilis prevalence were 8.7% and 4.4% respectively. The co-infection rate of HIV and Treponema pallidum was 1.2% (59/4 904). About one in three MSM did not use condom at latest homosexual behavior, 43.5% did not use condoms at each homosexual behavior in the past three months. Lower education level, occupation (worker or farmer), non-consistent condom use at each sex with men in the past three months, receiving HIV test or not and Treponema pallidum infection were associated with HIV infection. Age≥40 years, lower education level, multi male sex partners in the past three months and HIV infection were associated with Treponema pallidum infection. MSM receiving web appointed HIV counseling and testing had high prevalence of risk behaviors and high HIV infection rate, but had low previous HIV testing rate. It is necessary to strengthen the promotion of HIV test through web based appointment and conduct target behavior intervention in older MSM with lower education level.

Dynamic load effects on gate valve operability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steele, R. Jr.; MacDonald, P.E.; Arendts, J.G.

1986-01-01

The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) participated in an internationally sponsored seismic research program conducted at the decommissioned Heissdampfreaktor (HDR) located in the Federal Republic of Germany. An existing piping system was modified by installation of an 8-in., naturally aged, motor-operated gate valve from a US nuclear power plant and a piping support system of US design. Six other piping support systems of varying flexibility from stiff to flexible were also installed at various times during the tests. Additional valve loadings included internal hydraulic loads and, during one block of tests, elevated temperature. The operability and integrity of the aged gate valve and the dynamic response of the various piping support system were measured during 25 representative seismic events

Low-power DRAM-compatible Replacement Gate High-k/Metal Gate Stacks

Science.gov (United States)

Ritzenthaler, R.; Schram, T.; Bury, E.; Spessot, A.; Caillat, C.; Srividya, V.; Sebaai, F.; Mitard, J.; Ragnarsson, L.-Å.; Groeseneken, G.; Horiguchi, N.; Fazan, P.; Thean, A.

2013-06-01

In this work, the possibility of integration of High-k/Metal Gate (HKMG), Replacement Metal Gate (RMG) gate stacks for low power DRAM compatible transistors is studied. First, it is shown that RMG gate stacks used for Logic applications need to be seriously reconsidered, because of the additional anneal(s) needed in a DRAM process. New solutions are therefore developed. A PMOS stack HfO2/TiN with TiN deposited in three times combined with Work Function metal oxidations is demonstrated, featuring a very good Work Function of 4.95 eV. On the other hand, the NMOS side is shown to be a thornier problem to solve: a new solution based on the use of oxidized Ta as a diffusion barrier is proposed, and a HfO2/TiN/TaOX/TiAl/TiN/TiN gate stack featuring an aggressive Work Function of 4.35 eV (allowing a Work Function separation of 600 mV between NMOS and PMOS) is demonstrated. This work paves the way toward the integration of gate-last options for DRAM periphery transistors.

Processing plutonium-contaminated soild for volume reduction using the segmented gate system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moroney, K.S.; Moroney, J.D.; Turney, J.M.; Doane, R.W.

1994-01-01

TMA/Eberline has developed and demonstrated an effective method for removing mixed plutonium and americium contamination from a coral soil matrix at the Defense Nuclear Agency's Johnston Atoll site. TMA's onsite soil processing for volume reduction is ongoing at a rate of over 2000 metric tons per week. The system uses arrays of sensitive radiation detectors coupled with sophisticated computer software developed by Eberline Instrument Corporation. The proprietary software controls four soil sorting units operating in parallel that utilize TMA's unique Segmented Gate System technology to remove radiologically contaminated soil from a moving supply on conveyor belts. Clean soil is released for use elsewhere on the island. Contaminated soil is diverted to either a metal drum for collecting higher activity open-quotes hotclose quotes particles (>5000 Becquerels), or to a supplementary soil washing process designed to remove finely divided particles of dispersed low level contamination. Site contamination limits specify maximum dispersed radioactivity of no more than 500 Becquerels per kilogram of soil averaged over no more than 0.1 cubic meter. Results of soil processing at this site have been excellent. After processing over 50,000 metric tons, the volume of contaminated material that would have required expensive special handling, packaging, and disposal as radioactive waste has been successfully reduced by over 98 percent. By mid-January 1994, nearly three million kiloBecquerels of plutonium/americium contamination had been physically separated from the contaminated feed by TMA's Segmented Gate System, and quality control sampling showed no radioactivity above release criteria in the open-quotes cleanclose quotes soil pile

78 FR 75948 - Senior Executive Service; Appointment of Members to the Performance Review Board

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-13

... Resources Center--Sydney T. Rose Executive Secretary--Director, Executive Resources--Kim L.H. Green... H. Moore, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and Analysis--appointment expires on 09/30/16..., New York--appointment expires on 09/30/16 OLMS Stephen J. Willertz, Director, Office of Enforcement...

Motion management within two respiratory-gating windows: feasibility study of dual quasi-breath-hold technique in gated medical procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Taeho; Kim, Siyong; Youn, Kaylin K; Park, Yang-Kyun; Keall, Paul; Lee, Rena

2014-01-01

A dual quasi-breath-hold (DQBH) technique is proposed for respiratory motion management (a hybrid technique combining breathing-guidance with breath-hold task in the middle). The aim of this study is to test a hypothesis that the DQBH biofeedback system improves both the capability of motion management and delivery efficiency. Fifteen healthy human subjects were recruited for two respiratory motion measurements (free breathing and DQBH biofeedback breathing for 15 min). In this study, the DQBH biofeedback system utilized the abdominal position obtained using an real-time position management (RPM) system (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, USA) to audio-visually guide a human subject for 4 s breath-hold at EOI and 90% EOE (EOE 90% ) to improve delivery efficiency. We investigated the residual respiratory motion and the delivery efficiency (duty-cycle) of abdominal displacement within the gating window. The improvement of the abdominal motion reproducibility was evaluated in terms of cycle-to-cycle displacement variability, respiratory period and baseline drift. The DQBH biofeedback system improved the abdominal motion management capability compared to that with free breathing. With a phase based gating (mean ± std: 55  ±  5%), the averaged root mean square error (RMSE) of the abdominal displacement in the dual-gating windows decreased from 2.26 mm of free breathing to 1.16 mm of DQBH biofeedback (p-value = 0.007). The averaged RMSE of abdominal displacement over the entire respiratory cycles reduced from 2.23 mm of free breathing to 1.39 mm of DQBH biofeedback breathing in the dual-gating windows (p-value = 0.028). The averaged baseline drift dropped from 0.9 mm min −1 with free breathing to 0.09 mm min −1 with DQBH biofeedback (p-value = 0.048). The averaged duty-cycle with an 1 mm width of displacement bound increased from 15% of free breathing to 26% of DQBH biofeedback (p-value = 0.003). The study demonstrated that the DQBH

Accuracy and Consistency of Respiratory Gating in Abdominal Cancer Patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ge, Jiajia; Santanam, Lakshmi; Yang, Deshan; Parikh, Parag J.

2013-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate respiratory gating accuracy and intrafractional consistency for abdominal cancer patients treated with respiratory gated treatment on a regular linear accelerator system. Methods and Materials: Twelve abdominal patients implanted with fiducials were treated with amplitude-based respiratory-gated radiation therapy. On the basis of daily orthogonal fluoroscopy, the operator readjusted the couch position and gating window such that the fiducial was within a setup margin (fiducial-planning target volume [f-PTV]) when RPM indicated “beam-ON.” Fifty-five pre- and post-treatment fluoroscopic movie pairs with synchronized respiratory gating signal were recorded. Fiducial motion traces were extracted from the fluoroscopic movies using a template matching algorithm and correlated with f-PTV by registering the digitally reconstructed radiographs with the fluoroscopic movies. Treatment was determined to be “accurate” if 50% of the fiducial area stayed within f-PTV while beam-ON. For movie pairs that lost gating accuracy, a MATLAB program was used to assess whether the gating window was optimized, the external-internal correlation (EIC) changed, or the patient moved between movies. A series of safety margins from 0.5 mm to 3 mm was added to f-PTV for reassessing gating accuracy. Results: A decrease in gating accuracy was observed in 44% of movie pairs from daily fluoroscopic movies of 12 abdominal patients. Three main causes for inaccurate gating were identified as change of global EIC over time (∼43%), suboptimal gating setup (∼37%), and imperfect EIC within movie (∼13%). Conclusions: Inconsistent respiratory gating accuracy may occur within 1 treatment session even with a daily adjusted gating window. To improve or maintain gating accuracy during treatment, we suggest using at least a 2.5-mm safety margin to account for gating and setup uncertainties

Quantum logic gates using Stark-shifted Raman transitions in a cavity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Biswas, Asoka; Agarwal, G.S.

2004-01-01

We present a scheme to realize the basic two-qubit logic gates such as the quantum phase gate and the controlled-NOT gate using a detuned optical cavity interacting with a three-level Raman system. We discuss the role of Stark shifts, which are as important as the terms leading to the two-photon transition. The operation of the proposed logic gates involves metastable states of the atom and hence is not affected by spontaneous emission. These ideas can be extended to produce multiparticle entanglement

Verification of respiratory-gated radiotherapy with new real-time tumour-tracking radiotherapy system using cine EPID images and a log file.

Science.gov (United States)

Shiinoki, Takehiro; Hanazawa, Hideki; Yuasa, Yuki; Fujimoto, Koya; Uehara, Takuya; Shibuya, Keiko

2017-02-21

A combined system comprising the TrueBeam linear accelerator and a new real-time tumour-tracking radiotherapy system, SyncTraX, was installed at our institution. The objectives of this study are to develop a method for the verification of respiratory-gated radiotherapy with SyncTraX using cine electronic portal image device (EPID) images and a log file and to verify this treatment in clinical cases. Respiratory-gated radiotherapy was performed using TrueBeam and the SyncTraX system. Cine EPID images and a log file were acquired for a phantom and three patients during the course of the treatment. Digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) were created for each treatment beam using a planning CT set. The cine EPID images, log file, and DRRs were analysed using a developed software. For the phantom case, the accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated to verify the respiratory-gated radiotherapy. For the clinical cases, the intra- and inter-fractional variations of the fiducial marker used as an internal surrogate were calculated to evaluate the gating accuracy and set-up uncertainty in the superior-inferior (SI), anterior-posterior (AP), and left-right (LR) directions. The proposed method achieved high accuracy for the phantom verification. For the clinical cases, the intra- and inter-fractional variations of the fiducial marker were  ⩽3 mm and  ±3 mm in the SI, AP, and LR directions. We proposed a method for the verification of respiratory-gated radiotherapy with SyncTraX using cine EPID images and a log file and showed that this treatment is performed with high accuracy in clinical cases.

Deterministic quantum controlled-PHASE gates based on non-Markovian environments

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Rui; Chen, Tian; Wang, Xiang-Bin

2017-12-01

We study the realization of the quantum controlled-PHASE gate in an atom-cavity system beyond the Markovian approximation. The general description of the dynamics for the atom-cavity system without any approximation is presented. When the spectral density of the reservoir has the Lorentz form, by making use of the memory backflow from the reservoir, we can always construct the deterministic quantum controlled-PHASE gate between a photon and an atom, no matter the atom-cavity coupling strength is weak or strong. While, the phase shift in the output pulse hinders the implementation of quantum controlled-PHASE gates in the sub-Ohmic, Ohmic or super-Ohmic reservoirs.

Management of the baseline shift using a new and simple method for respiratory-gated radiation therapy: Detectability and effectiveness of a flexible monitoring system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tachibana, Hidenobu; Kitamura, Nozomi; Ito, Yasushi; Kawai, Daisuke; Nakajima, Masaru; Tsuda, Akihisa; Shiizuka, Hisao

2011-01-01

Purpose: In respiratory-gated radiation therapy, a baseline shift decreases the accuracy of target coverage and organs at risk (OAR) sparing. The effectiveness of audio-feedback and audio-visual feedback in correcting the baseline shift in the breathing pattern of the patient has been demonstrated previously. However, the baseline shift derived from the intrafraction motion of the patient's body cannot be corrected by these methods. In the present study, the authors designed and developed a simple and flexible system. Methods: The system consisted of a web camera and a computer running our in-house software. The in-house software was adapted to template matching and also to no preimage processing. The system was capable of monitoring the baseline shift in the intrafraction motion of the patient's body. Another marker box was used to monitor the baseline shift due to the flexible setups required of a marker box for gated signals. The system accuracy was evaluated by employing a respiratory motion phantom and was found to be within AAPM Task Group 142 tolerance (positional accuracy <2 mm and temporal accuracy <100 ms) for respiratory-gated radiation therapy. Additionally, the effectiveness of this flexible and independent system in gated treatment was investigated in healthy volunteers, in terms of the results from the differences in the baseline shift detectable between the marker positions, which the authors evaluated statistically. Results: The movement of the marker on the sternum [1.599 ± 0.622 mm (1 SD)] was substantially decreased as compared with the abdomen [6.547 ± 0.962 mm (1 SD)]. Additionally, in all of the volunteers, the baseline shifts for the sternum [-0.136 ± 0.868 (2 SD)] were in better agreement with the nominal baseline shifts than was the case for the abdomen [-0.722 ± 1.56 mm (2 SD)]. The baseline shifts could be accurately measured and detected using the monitoring system, which could acquire the movement of the marker on the sternum. The

Implementation of angular response function modeling in SPECT simulations with GATE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Descourt, P; Visvikis, D; Carlier, T; Bardies, M; Du, Y; Song, X; Frey, E C; Tsui, B M W; Buvat, I

2010-01-01

Among Monte Carlo simulation codes in medical imaging, the GATE simulation platform is widely used today given its flexibility and accuracy, despite long run times, which in SPECT simulations are mostly spent in tracking photons through the collimators. In this work, a tabulated model of the collimator/detector response was implemented within the GATE framework to significantly reduce the simulation times in SPECT. This implementation uses the angular response function (ARF) model. The performance of the implemented ARF approach has been compared to standard SPECT GATE simulations in terms of the ARF tables' accuracy, overall SPECT system performance and run times. Considering the simulation of the Siemens Symbia T SPECT system using high-energy collimators, differences of less than 1% were measured between the ARF-based and the standard GATE-based simulations, while considering the same noise level in the projections, acceleration factors of up to 180 were obtained when simulating a planar 364 keV source seen with the same SPECT system. The ARF-based and the standard GATE simulation results also agreed very well when considering a four-head SPECT simulation of a realistic Jaszczak phantom filled with iodine-131, with a resulting acceleration factor of 100. In conclusion, the implementation of an ARF-based model of collimator/detector response for SPECT simulations within GATE significantly reduces the simulation run times without compromising accuracy. (note)

Implementation of angular response function modeling in SPECT simulations with GATE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Descourt, P; Visvikis, D [INSERM, U650, LaTIM, IFR SclnBioS, Universite de Brest, CHU Brest, Brest, F-29200 (France); Carlier, T; Bardies, M [CRCNA INSERM U892, Nantes (France); Du, Y; Song, X; Frey, E C; Tsui, B M W [Department of Radiology, J Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (United States); Buvat, I, E-mail: dimitris@univ-brest.f [IMNC-UMR 8165 CNRS Universites Paris 7 et Paris 11, Orsay (France)

2010-05-07

Among Monte Carlo simulation codes in medical imaging, the GATE simulation platform is widely used today given its flexibility and accuracy, despite long run times, which in SPECT simulations are mostly spent in tracking photons through the collimators. In this work, a tabulated model of the collimator/detector response was implemented within the GATE framework to significantly reduce the simulation times in SPECT. This implementation uses the angular response function (ARF) model. The performance of the implemented ARF approach has been compared to standard SPECT GATE simulations in terms of the ARF tables' accuracy, overall SPECT system performance and run times. Considering the simulation of the Siemens Symbia T SPECT system using high-energy collimators, differences of less than 1% were measured between the ARF-based and the standard GATE-based simulations, while considering the same noise level in the projections, acceleration factors of up to 180 were obtained when simulating a planar 364 keV source seen with the same SPECT system. The ARF-based and the standard GATE simulation results also agreed very well when considering a four-head SPECT simulation of a realistic Jaszczak phantom filled with iodine-131, with a resulting acceleration factor of 100. In conclusion, the implementation of an ARF-based model of collimator/detector response for SPECT simulations within GATE significantly reduces the simulation run times without compromising accuracy. (note)

Optimizing link efficiency for gated DPCCH transmission on HSUPA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zarco, Carlos Ruben Delgado; Wigard, Jeroen; Kolding, T. E.

2007-01-01

consider the E-DCH performance degradation caused by gating on other radio procedures relying on the DPCCH, such as inner and outer loop power control. Our studies show that gating is beneficial for both for 2 and 10 ms transmission time intervals. The gains in terms of LE with a Vehicular A 30 kmph......To minimize the terminal's transmission power in bursty uplink traffic conditions, the evolved High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) concept in 3GPP WCDMA includes a feature known as Dedicated Physical Control Channel (DPCCH) gating. We present here a detailed link level study of gating from...... a link efficiency (LE) perspective; LE being expressed in bits per second per Watt. While the overall gain mechanisms of gating are well known, we show how special challenges related to discontinuous Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH) transmission can be addressed for high link and system performance. We...

Quantitative Determination on Ionic-Liquid-Gating Control of Interfacial Magnetism.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Shishun; Zhou, Ziyao; Peng, Bin; Zhu, Mingmin; Feng, Mengmeng; Yang, Qu; Yan, Yuan; Ren, Wei; Ye, Zuo-Guang; Liu, Yaohua; Liu, Ming

2017-05-01

Ionic-liquid gating on a functional thin film with a low voltage has drawn a lot of attention due to rich chemical, electronic, and magnetic phenomena at the interface. Here, a key challenge in quantitative determination of voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) in Au/[DEME] + [TFSI] - /Co field-effect transistor heterostructures is addressed. The magnetic anisotropy change as response to the gating voltage is precisely detected by in situ electron spin resonance measurements. A reversible change of magnetic anisotropy up to 219 Oe is achieved with a low gating voltage of 1.5 V at room temperature, corresponding to a record high VCMA coefficient of ≈146 Oe V -1 . Two gating effects, the electrostatic doping and electrochemical reaction, are distinguished at various gating voltage regions, as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy experiments. This work shows a unique ionic-liquid-gating system for strong interfacial magnetoelectric coupling with many practical advantages, paving the way toward ion-liquid-gating spintronic/electronic devices. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

76 FR 38348 - Notice of Appointment of Committee Members to the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-30

... Service Notice of Appointment of Committee Members to the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st.... ACTION: Notice of Appointment of Committee Members to the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st... the appointment of members to the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture...

Treatment dropout and missed appointments among adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: associations with patient- and disorder-related factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Soendergaard, Helle M; Thomsen, Per H; Pedersen, Pernille; Pedersen, Erik; Poulsen, Agnethe E; Nielsen, Jette M; Winther, Lars; Henriksen, Anne; Rungoe, Berit; Soegaard, Hans J

2016-02-01

educational and occupational systems and highest rates of skipping class during mandatory schooling is equally associated with current behavior of treatment dropout and missed appointments as are sociodemographic and clinical factors. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02226445. © Copyright 2015 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

Imperfect linear-optical photonic gates with number-resolving photodetection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, A. Matthew; Uskov, D. B.; Ying, L. H.; Kaplan, L.

2011-01-01

We use the numerical optimization techniques of Uskov et al.[Phys. Rev. A 81, 012303 (2010)] to investigate the behavior of the success rates for Knill-Laflamme-Milburn-style [Knill et al., Nature (London) 409, 46 (2001)] two- and three-qubit entangling gates. The methods are first demonstrated at perfect fidelity and then extended to imperfect gates. We find that as the perfect fidelity condition is relaxed, the maximum attainable success rates increase in a predictable fashion depending on the size of the system, and we compare that rate of increase for several gates.

An Integrated Gate Turnaround Management Concept Leveraging Big Data/Analytics for NAS Performance Improvements

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, William; Chachad, Girish; Hochstetler, Ronald

2016-01-01

The Integrated Gate Turnaround Management (IGTM) concept was developed to improve the gate turnaround performance at the airport by leveraging relevant historical data to support optimization of airport gate operations, which include: taxi to the gate, gate services, push back, taxi to the runway, and takeoff, based on available resources, constraints, and uncertainties. By analyzing events of gate operations, primary performance dependent attributes of these events were identified for the historical data analysis such that performance models can be developed based on uncertainties to support descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive functions. A system architecture was developed to examine system requirements in support of such a concept. An IGTM prototype was developed to demonstrate the concept using a distributed network and collaborative decision tools for stakeholders to meet on time pushback performance under uncertainties.

Men’s Educational Group Appointments in Rural Nicaragua

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Bruce B.; Gonzalez, Hugo; Campbell, McKenzie; Campbell, Kent

2016-01-01

Men’s preventive health and wellness is largely neglected in rural Nicaragua, where a machismo culture prevents men from seeking health care. To address this issue, a men’s educational group appointment model was initiated at a rural health post to increase awareness about hypertension, and to train community health leaders to measure blood pressure. Men’s hypertension workshops were conducted with patient knowledge pretesting, didactic teaching, and posttesting. Pretesting and posttesting performances were recorded, blood pressures were screened, and community leaders were trained to perform sphygmomanometry. An increase in hypertension-related knowledge was observed after every workshop and community health leaders demonstrated proficiency in sphygmomanometry. In addition, several at-risk patients were identified and follow-up care arranged. Men’s educational group appointments, shown to be effective in the United States in increasing patient knowledge and satisfaction, appear to function similarly in a resource-constrained environment and may be an effective mechanism for reaching underserved men in Nicaragua. PMID:27885146

Council appoints CERN’s next Director General

CERN Multimedia

Maximilien Brice

2007-01-01

On 14 December 2007, CERN Council appointed Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer to succeed Dr Robert Aymar as CERN Director General. Professor Heuer will serve a five-year term, taking office on 1 January 2009. From Left to right: Dr Robert Aymar, current CERN Director General, Professor Torsten Åkesson, President of CERN Council, and Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, CERN's next Director General.

Deutsch, Toffoli, and cnot Gates via Rydberg Blockade of Neutral Atoms

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Xiao-Feng

2018-05-01

Universal quantum gates and quantum error correction (QEC) lie at the heart of quantum-information science. Large-scale quantum computing depends on a universal set of quantum gates, in which some gates may be easily carried out, while others are restricted to certain physical systems. There is a unique three-qubit quantum gate called the Deutsch gate [D (θ )], from which a circuit can be constructed so that any feasible quantum computing is attainable. We design an easily realizable D (θ ) by using the Rydberg blockade of neutral atoms, where θ can be tuned to any value in [0 ,π ] by adjusting the strengths of external control fields. Using similar protocols, we further show that both the Toffoli and controlled-not gates can be achieved with only three laser pulses. The Toffoli gate, being universal for classical reversible computing, is also useful for QEC, which plays an important role in quantum communication and fault-tolerant quantum computation. The possibility and speed of realizing these gates shed light on the study of quantum information with neutral atoms.

77 FR 21109 - Senior Executive Service; Appointment of Members to the Performance Review Board

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-09

... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Office of the Secretary Senior Executive Service; Appointment of Members to the Performance Review Board Title 5 U.S.C. 4314(c)(4) provides that Notice of the Appointment of an individual to serve as a member of the Performance Review Board of the Senior Executive Service shall be...

Expert Oracle GoldenGate

CERN Document Server

Prusinski, Ben; Chung, Richard

2011-01-01

Expert Oracle GoldenGate is a hands-on guide to creating and managing complex data replication environments using the latest in database replication technology from Oracle. GoldenGate is the future in replication technology from Oracle, and aims to be best-of-breed. GoldenGate supports homogeneous replication between Oracle databases. It supports heterogeneous replication involving other brands such as Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB2 Universal Server. GoldenGate is high-speed, bidirectional, highly-parallelized, and makes only a light impact on the performance of databases involved in replica

Design of a scanning gate microscope for mesoscopic electron systems in a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelliccione, M; Sciambi, A; Bartel, J; Keller, A J; Goldhaber-Gordon, D

2013-03-01

We report on our design of a scanning gate microscope housed in a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator with a base temperature of 15 mK. The recent increase in efficiency of pulse tube cryocoolers has made cryogen-free systems popular in recent years. However, this new style of cryostat presents challenges for performing scanning probe measurements, mainly as a result of the vibrations introduced by the cryocooler. We demonstrate scanning with root-mean-square vibrations of 0.8 nm at 3 K and 2.1 nm at 15 mK in a 1 kHz bandwidth with our design. Using Coulomb blockade thermometry on a GaAs/AlGaAs gate-defined quantum dot, we demonstrate an electron temperature of 45 mK.

78 FR 24749 - Health Information Technology Policy Committee Appointment

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-26

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Health Information Technology Policy Committee Appointment AGENCY... Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) established the Health Information Technology Policy Committee to make recommendations on the implementation of a nationwide health information technology...

Water-gel for gating graphene transistors.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Beom Joon; Um, Soong Ho; Song, Woo Chul; Kim, Yong Ho; Kang, Moon Sung; Cho, Jeong Ho

2014-05-14

Water, the primary electrolyte in biology, attracts significant interest as an electrolyte-type dielectric material for transistors compatible with biological systems. Unfortunately, the fluidic nature and low ionic conductivity of water prevents its practical usage in such applications. Here, we describe the development of a solid state, megahertz-operating, water-based gate dielectric system for operating graphene transistors. The new electrolyte systems were prepared by dissolving metal-substituted DNA polyelectrolytes into water. The addition of these biocompatible polyelectrolytes induced hydrogelation to provide solid-state integrity to the system. They also enhanced the ionic conductivities of the electrolytes, which in turn led to the quick formation of an electric double layer at the graphene/electrolyte interface that is beneficial for modulating currents in graphene transistors at high frequencies. At the optimized conditions, the Na-DNA water-gel-gated flexible transistors and inverters were operated at frequencies above 1 MHz and 100 kHz, respectively.

Quantum Gate Operations in Decoherence-Free Subspace with Superconducting Charge Qubits inside a Cavity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yi-Min, Wang; Yan-Li, Zhou; Lin-Mei, Liang; Cheng-Zu, Li

2009-01-01

We propose a feasible scheme to achieve universal quantum gate operations in decoherence-free subspace with superconducting charge qubits placed in a microwave cavity. Single-logic-qubit gates can be realized with cavity assisted interaction, which possesses the advantages of unconventional geometric gate operation. The two-logic-qubit controlled-phase gate between subsystems can be constructed with the help of a variable electrostatic transformer. The collective decoherence can be successfully avoided in our well-designed system. Moreover, GHZ state for logical qubits can also be easily produced in this system

A missed primary care appointment correlates with a subsequent emergency department visit among children with asthma.

Science.gov (United States)

McGovern, Colleen Marie; Redmond, Margaret; Arcoleo, Kimberly; Stukus, David R

2017-11-01

Since the Affordable Care Act's implementation, emergency department (ED) visits have increased. Poor asthma control increases the risk of acute exacerbations and preventable ED visits. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services support the reduction of preventable ED visits to reduce healthcare spending. Implementation of interventions to avoid preventable ED visits has become a priority for many healthcare systems yet little data exist examining children's missed asthma management primary care (PC) appointments and subsequent ED visits. Longitudinal, retrospective review at a children's hospital was conducted for children with diagnosed asthma (ICD-9 493.xx), ages 2-18 years, scheduled for a PC visit between January 1, 2010, and June 30, 2012 (N = 3895). Records were cross-referenced with all asthma-related ED visits from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2012. Logistic regression with maximum likelihood estimation was conducted. None of the children who completed a PC appointment experienced an ED visit in the subsequent 6 months whereas 2.7% of those with missed PC appointments had an ED visit (χ 2 = 64.28, p asthma as one mechanism for preventing ED visits was demonstrated. Interventions targeting missed visits could decrease asthma-related morbidity, preventable ED visits, and healthcare costs.

Lead Time to Appointment and No-Show Rates for New and Follow-up Patients in an Ambulatory Clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Drewek, Rupali; Mirea, Lucia; Adelson, P David

High rates of no-shows in outpatient clinics are problematic for revenue and for quality of patient care. Longer lead time to appointment has variably been implicated as a risk factor for no-shows, but the evidence within pediatric clinics is inconclusive. The goal of this study was to estimate no-show rates and test for association between appointment lead time and no-show rates for new and follow-up patients. Analyses included 534 new and 1920 follow-up patients from pulmonology and gastroenterology clinics at a freestanding children's hospital. The overall rate of no-shows was lower for visits scheduled within 0 to 30 days compared with 30 days or more (23% compared with 47%, P < .0001). Patient type significantly modified the association of appointment lead time; the rate of no-shows was higher (30%) among new patients compared with (21%) follow-up patients with appointments scheduled within 30 days (P = .004). For appointments scheduled 30 or more days' lead time, no-show rates were statistically similar for new patients (46%) and follow-up patients (0.48%). Time to appointment is a risk factor associated with no-shows, and further study is needed to identify and implement effective approaches to reduce appointment lead time, especially for new patients in pediatric subspecialties.

Three-channel gated nanosecond integrator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsirkel', B.I.; Martsinovskij, A.M.

1981-01-01

Structure and principle of operation of three-channel gated integrator for investigating the shape of periodical electric and optical signals at high background noise level are described. The integrator consists of an integrating circuit itself for each channel and a circuit of gating pulse formation. If the noise level doesn't exceed the signal, the value of storage capacity can be equal to 22 nF. The value of storage capacity must be increased in the case of a worse signal-to-noise ratio. The gating pulse formation circuit includes a comparator, a sawtooth voltage generator and a reference voltage generator. An integrator flowsheet is given. The time resolution of the system is about 50 ns, time sweep amounts to 5-2000 μs, electric signal sensitivity is about 70 μV. The pulse signal shape recording is performed with manual or automated time sweep at two-coordinate potentiometer. The light signal detection is made on the base of photomultiplier pulse counting rate record by the dynamic capacitor method, sensitivity limit amounts to about 1 pulse/s

Verification of respiratory-gated radiotherapy with new real-time tumour-tracking radiotherapy system using cine EPID images and a log file

Science.gov (United States)

Shiinoki, Takehiro; Hanazawa, Hideki; Yuasa, Yuki; Fujimoto, Koya; Uehara, Takuya; Shibuya, Keiko

2017-02-01

A combined system comprising the TrueBeam linear accelerator and a new real-time tumour-tracking radiotherapy system, SyncTraX, was installed at our institution. The objectives of this study are to develop a method for the verification of respiratory-gated radiotherapy with SyncTraX using cine electronic portal image device (EPID) images and a log file and to verify this treatment in clinical cases. Respiratory-gated radiotherapy was performed using TrueBeam and the SyncTraX system. Cine EPID images and a log file were acquired for a phantom and three patients during the course of the treatment. Digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) were created for each treatment beam using a planning CT set. The cine EPID images, log file, and DRRs were analysed using a developed software. For the phantom case, the accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated to verify the respiratory-gated radiotherapy. For the clinical cases, the intra- and inter-fractional variations of the fiducial marker used as an internal surrogate were calculated to evaluate the gating accuracy and set-up uncertainty in the superior-inferior (SI), anterior-posterior (AP), and left-right (LR) directions. The proposed method achieved high accuracy for the phantom verification. For the clinical cases, the intra- and inter-fractional variations of the fiducial marker were  ⩽3 mm and  ±3 mm in the SI, AP, and LR directions. We proposed a method for the verification of respiratory-gated radiotherapy with SyncTraX using cine EPID images and a log file and showed that this treatment is performed with high accuracy in clinical cases. This work was partly presented at the 58th Annual meeting of American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Cnidarian Toxins Acting on Voltage-Gated Ion Channels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert M. Greenberg

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Voltage-gated ion channels generate electrical activity in excitable cells. As such, they are essential components of neuromuscular and neuronal systems, and are targeted by toxins from a wide variety of phyla, including the cnidarians. Here, we review cnidarian toxins known to target voltage-gated ion channels, the specific channel types targeted, and, where known, the sites of action of cnidarian toxins on different channels.

A hydrogel capsule as gate dielectric in flexible organic field-effect transistors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dumitru, L. M.; Manoli, K.; Magliulo, M.; Torsi, L., E-mail: luisa.torsi@uniba.it [Department of Chemistry, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Via Orabona 4, Bari I-70126 (Italy); Ligonzo, T. [Department of Physics, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Via Orabona 4, Bari I-70126 (Italy); Palazzo, G. [Department of Chemistry, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Via Orabona 4, Bari I-70126 (Italy); Center of Colloid and Surface Science—CSGI—Bari Unit, Via Orabona 4, Bari I-70126 (Italy)

2015-01-01

A jellified alginate based capsule serves as biocompatible and biodegradable electrolyte system to gate an organic field-effect transistor fabricated on a flexible substrate. Such a system allows operating thiophene based polymer transistors below 0.5 V through an electrical double layer formed across an ion-permeable polymeric electrolyte. Moreover, biological macro-molecules such as glucose-oxidase and streptavidin can enter into the gating capsules that serve also as delivery system. An enzymatic bio-reaction is shown to take place in the capsule and preliminary results on the measurement of the electronic responses promise for low-cost, low-power, flexible electronic bio-sensing applications using capsule-gated organic field-effect transistors.

Scheme for implementing N-qubit controlled phase gate of photons assisted by quantum-dot-microcavity coupled system: optimal probability of success

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cui, Wen-Xue; Hu, Shi; Wang, Hong-Fu; Zhu, Ai-Dong; Zhang, Shou

2015-01-01

The direct implementation of multiqubit controlled phase gate of photons is appealing and important for reducing the complexity of the physical realization of linear-optics-based practical quantum computer and quantum algorithms. In this letter we propose a nondestructive scheme for implementing an N-qubit controlled phase gate of photons with a high success probability. The gate can be directly implemented with the self-designed quantum encoder circuits, which are probabilistic optical quantum entangler devices and can be achieved using linear optical elements, single-photon superposition state, and quantum dot coupled to optical microcavity. The calculated results indicate that both the success probabilities of the quantum encoder circuit and the N-qubit controlled phase gate in our scheme are higher than those in the previous schemes. We also consider the effects of the side leakage and cavity loss on the success probability and the fidelity of the quantum encoder circuit for a realistic quantum-dot-microcavity coupled system. (letter)

GATE V6: a major enhancement of the GATE simulation platform enabling modelling of CT and radiotherapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jan, S; Becheva, E [DSV/I2BM/SHFJ, Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Orsay (France); Benoit, D; Rehfeld, N; Stute, S; Buvat, I [IMNC-UMR 8165 CNRS-Paris 7 and Paris 11 Universities, 15 rue Georges Clemenceau, 91406 Orsay Cedex (France); Carlier, T [INSERM U892-Cancer Research Center, University of Nantes, Nantes (France); Cassol, F; Morel, C [Centre de physique des particules de Marseille, CNRS-IN2P3 and Universite de la Mediterranee, Aix-Marseille II, 163, avenue de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09 (France); Descourt, P; Visvikis, D [INSERM, U650, Laboratoire du Traitement de l' Information Medicale (LaTIM), CHU Morvan, Brest (France); Frisson, T; Grevillot, L; Guigues, L; Sarrut, D; Zahra, N [Universite de Lyon, CREATIS, CNRS UMR5220, Inserm U630, INSA-Lyon, Universite Lyon 1, Centre Leon Berard (France); Maigne, L; Perrot, Y [Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire, 24 Avenue des Landais, 63177 Aubiere Cedex (France); Schaart, D R [Delft University of Technology, Radiation Detection and Medical Imaging, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft (Netherlands); Pietrzyk, U, E-mail: buvat@imnc.in2p3.fr [Reseach Center Juelich, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine and Department of Physics, University of Wuppertal (Germany)

2011-02-21

GATE (Geant4 Application for Emission Tomography) is a Monte Carlo simulation platform developed by the OpenGATE collaboration since 2001 and first publicly released in 2004. Dedicated to the modelling of planar scintigraphy, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) acquisitions, this platform is widely used to assist PET and SPECT research. A recent extension of this platform, released by the OpenGATE collaboration as GATE V6, now also enables modelling of x-ray computed tomography and radiation therapy experiments. This paper presents an overview of the main additions and improvements implemented in GATE since the publication of the initial GATE paper (Jan et al 2004 Phys. Med. Biol. 49 4543-61). This includes new models available in GATE to simulate optical and hadronic processes, novelties in modelling tracer, organ or detector motion, new options for speeding up GATE simulations, examples illustrating the use of GATE V6 in radiotherapy applications and CT simulations, and preliminary results regarding the validation of GATE V6 for radiation therapy applications. Upon completion of extensive validation studies, GATE is expected to become a valuable tool for simulations involving both radiotherapy and imaging.

Reversible logic gates based on enzyme-biocatalyzed reactions and realized in flow cells: a modular approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Fratto, Brian E; Katz, Evgeny

2015-05-18

Reversible logic gates, such as the double Feynman gate, Toffoli gate and Peres gate, with 3-input/3-output channels are realized using reactions biocatalyzed with enzymes and performed in flow systems. The flow devices are constructed using a modular approach, where each flow cell is modified with one enzyme that biocatalyzes one chemical reaction. The multi-step processes mimicking the reversible logic gates are organized by combining the biocatalytic cells in different networks. This work emphasizes logical but not physical reversibility of the constructed systems. Their advantages and disadvantages are discussed and potential use in biosensing systems, rather than in computing devices, is suggested. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Measurement of time delay for a prospectively gated CT simulator.

Science.gov (United States)

Goharian, M; Khan, R F H

2010-04-01

For the management of mobile tumors, respiratory gating is the ideal option, both during imaging and during therapy. The major advantage of respiratory gating during imaging is that it is possible to create a single artifact-free CT data-set during a selected phase of the patient's breathing cycle. The purpose of the present work is to present a simple technique to measure the time delay during acquisition of a prospectively gated CT. The time delay of a Philips Brilliance BigBore (Philips Medical Systems, Madison, WI) scanner attached to a Varian Real-Time Position Management (RPM) system (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA) was measured. Two methods were used to measure the CT time delay: using a motion phantom and using a recorded data file from the RPM system. In the first technique, a rotating wheel phantom was altered by placing two plastic balls on its axis and rim, respectively. For a desired gate, the relative positions of the balls were measured from the acquired CT data and converted into corresponding phases. Phase difference was calculated between the measured phases and the desired phases. Using period of motion, the phase difference was converted into time delay. The Varian RPM system provides an external breathing signal; it also records transistor-transistor logic (TTL) 'X-Ray ON' status signal from the CT scanner in a text file. The TTL 'X-Ray ON' indicates the start of CT image acquisition. Thus, knowledge of the start time of CT acquisition, combined with the real-time phase and amplitude data from the external respiratory signal, provides time-stamping of all images in an axial CT scan. The TTL signal with time-stamp was used to calculate when (during the breathing cycle) a slice was recorded. Using the two approaches, the time delay between the prospective gating signal and CT simulator has been determined to be 367 +/- 40 ms. The delay requires corrections both at image acquisition and while setting gates for the treatment delivery

Integration of biomolecular logic gates with field-effect transducers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Poghossian, A., E-mail: a.poghossian@fz-juelich.de [Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Campus Juelich, Heinrich-Mussmann-Str. 1, D-52428 Juelich (Germany); Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems, Research Centre Juelich GmbH, D-52425 Juelich (Germany); Malzahn, K. [Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Campus Juelich, Heinrich-Mussmann-Str. 1, D-52428 Juelich (Germany); Abouzar, M.H. [Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Campus Juelich, Heinrich-Mussmann-Str. 1, D-52428 Juelich (Germany); Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems, Research Centre Juelich GmbH, D-52425 Juelich (Germany); Mehndiratta, P. [Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Campus Juelich, Heinrich-Mussmann-Str. 1, D-52428 Juelich (Germany); Katz, E. [Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science, NanoBio Laboratory (NABLAB), Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 13699-5810 (United States); Schoening, M.J. [Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Campus Juelich, Heinrich-Mussmann-Str. 1, D-52428 Juelich (Germany); Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems, Research Centre Juelich GmbH, D-52425 Juelich (Germany)

2011-11-01

Highlights: > Enzyme-based AND/OR logic gates are integrated with a capacitive field-effect sensor. > The AND/OR logic gates compose of multi-enzyme system immobilised on sensor surface. > Logic gates were activated by different combinations of chemical inputs (analytes). > The logic output (pH change) produced by the enzymes was read out by the sensor. - Abstract: The integration of biomolecular logic gates with field-effect devices - the basic element of conventional electronic logic gates and computing - is one of the most attractive and promising approaches for the transformation of biomolecular logic principles into macroscopically useable electrical output signals. In this work, capacitive field-effect EIS (electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor) sensors based on a p-Si-SiO{sub 2}-Ta{sub 2}O{sub 5} structure modified with a multi-enzyme membrane have been used for electronic transduction of biochemical signals processed by enzyme-based OR and AND logic gates. The realised OR logic gate composes of two enzymes (glucose oxidase and esterase) and was activated by ethyl butyrate or/and glucose. The AND logic gate composes of three enzymes (invertase, mutarotase and glucose oxidase) and was activated by two chemical input signals: sucrose and dissolved oxygen. The developed integrated enzyme logic gates produce local pH changes at the EIS sensor surface as a result of biochemical reactions activated by different combinations of chemical input signals, while the pH value of the bulk solution remains unchanged. The pH-induced charge changes at the gate-insulator (Ta{sub 2}O{sub 5}) surface of the EIS transducer result in an electronic signal corresponding to the logic output produced by the immobilised enzymes. The logic output signals have been read out by means of a constant-capacitance method.

Integration of biomolecular logic gates with field-effect transducers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poghossian, A.; Malzahn, K.; Abouzar, M.H.; Mehndiratta, P.; Katz, E.; Schoening, M.J.

2011-01-01

Highlights: → Enzyme-based AND/OR logic gates are integrated with a capacitive field-effect sensor. → The AND/OR logic gates compose of multi-enzyme system immobilised on sensor surface. → Logic gates were activated by different combinations of chemical inputs (analytes). → The logic output (pH change) produced by the enzymes was read out by the sensor. - Abstract: The integration of biomolecular logic gates with field-effect devices - the basic element of conventional electronic logic gates and computing - is one of the most attractive and promising approaches for the transformation of biomolecular logic principles into macroscopically useable electrical output signals. In this work, capacitive field-effect EIS (electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor) sensors based on a p-Si-SiO 2 -Ta 2 O 5 structure modified with a multi-enzyme membrane have been used for electronic transduction of biochemical signals processed by enzyme-based OR and AND logic gates. The realised OR logic gate composes of two enzymes (glucose oxidase and esterase) and was activated by ethyl butyrate or/and glucose. The AND logic gate composes of three enzymes (invertase, mutarotase and glucose oxidase) and was activated by two chemical input signals: sucrose and dissolved oxygen. The developed integrated enzyme logic gates produce local pH changes at the EIS sensor surface as a result of biochemical reactions activated by different combinations of chemical input signals, while the pH value of the bulk solution remains unchanged. The pH-induced charge changes at the gate-insulator (Ta 2 O 5 ) surface of the EIS transducer result in an electronic signal corresponding to the logic output produced by the immobilised enzymes. The logic output signals have been read out by means of a constant-capacitance method.

Behaviour of a series of reservoirs separated by drowned gates

Science.gov (United States)

Kolechkina, Alla; van Nooijen, Ronald

2017-04-01

Modern control systems tend to be based on computers and therefore to operate by sending commands to structures at given intervals (discrete time control system). Moreover, for almost all water management control systems there are practical lower limits on the time interval between structure adjustments and even between measurements. The water resource systems that are being controlled are physical systems whose state changes continuously. If we combine a continuously changing system and a discrete time controller we get a hybrid system. We use material from recent control theory literature to examine the behaviour of a series of reservoirs separated by drowned gates where the gates are under computer control.

Teachers' Attitudes toward the Appointment of Women as School Leaders: The Case of the Arab Education System in Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Arar, Khalid; Abramovitz, Ruth

2013-01-01

The trend towards gender equality in principalship appointments continues to interest researchers, especially when it appears in traditional societies that maintain patriarchal, anti-feminist attitudes and values. Arab society in Israel is undergoing transition from traditionalism to modernism. Arab women hold the majority of Arab school teaching…

22 CFR 11.30 - Senior Foreign Service officer career candidate and limited non-career appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Senior Foreign Service officer career candidate... PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT OF FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS § 11.30 Senior Foreign Service officer career candidate and limited non-career appointments. (a) General considerations. (1) Career officers at the Senior...

Liquid-based gating mechanism with tunable multiphase selectivity and antifouling behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Xu; Hu, Yuhang; Grinthal, Alison; Khan, Mughees; Aizenberg, Joanna

2015-03-05

Living organisms make extensive use of micro- and nanometre-sized pores as gatekeepers for controlling the movement of fluids, vapours and solids between complex environments. The ability of such pores to coordinate multiphase transport, in a highly selective and subtly triggered fashion and without clogging, has inspired interest in synthetic gated pores for applications ranging from fluid processing to 3D printing and lab-on-chip systems. But although specific gating and transport behaviours have been realized by precisely tailoring pore surface chemistries and pore geometries, a single system capable of controlling complex, selective multiphase transport has remained a distant prospect, and fouling is nearly inevitable. Here we introduce a gating mechanism that uses a capillary-stabilized liquid as a reversible, reconfigurable gate that fills and seals pores in the closed state, and creates a non-fouling, liquid-lined pore in the open state. Theoretical modelling and experiments demonstrate that for each transport substance, the gating threshold-the pressure needed to open the pores-can be rationally tuned over a wide pressure range. This enables us to realize in one system differential response profiles for a variety of liquids and gases, even letting liquids flow through the pore while preventing gas from escaping. These capabilities allow us to dynamically modulate gas-liquid sorting in a microfluidic flow and to separate a three-phase air-water-oil mixture, with the liquid lining ensuring sustained antifouling behaviour. Because the liquid gating strategy enables efficient long-term operation and can be applied to a variety of pore structures and membrane materials, and to micro- as well as macroscale fluid systems, we expect it to prove useful in a wide range of applications.

Development and clinical application of respiration gated irradiation system (ReGIS) in heavy ion radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Osaka, Yasuhiro; Tsujii, Hirohiko; Mizoe, Jun-etsu

1999-01-01

In order to achieve maximal radiation dose concentration for thoraco-abdominal tumors and spare normal surrounding tissue in heavy ion therapy, compensation for respiration-related movement is desirable. Hence, a respiration-gated irradiation system (ReGIS) was introduced to the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) in June 1996. In this report, the development and clinical application of ReGIS, as well as the analysis of respiration-related movement and reduction of target volumes are described. When using ReGIS, a sensor emitting infrared rays is attached to the thoracic or abdominal wall to measure respiratory movement. A position-sensitive device (camera) senses these rays to detect sensor locations and data are forwarded to a computer system. A curve representing respiratory cycles is displayed, upon which a trigger level that is part of a respiratory cycle (about a fourth or fifth of the expiratory phase). Beams can be delivered while the respiratory curve is under the trigger level. Thirty-five patients involving 37 irradiated sites (19 lung cancers, 13 hepatomas, 2 mediastinal tumors, and 3 metastatic lung tumors) were retrospectively analyzed. Target volumes were reduced an average of 29.5% (11.0 to 57.9%) using ReGIS. Average tumor respiration-related movement in gated phase was 3.7 mm (0 mm to 14.6 mm). Although irradiation using ReGIS took more time to perform (average 1.62 times non-gated irradiation), it was considered to be acceptable for routine heavy ion therapy. ReGIS has proved to be useful for compensation of respiration-related movement and reduction of target volume in radiotherapy, and this method is sufficiently simple for practical clinical application. (author)

Realization of quantum gates with multiple control qubits or multiple target qubits in a cavity

Science.gov (United States)

Waseem, Muhammad; Irfan, Muhammad; Qamar, Shahid

2015-06-01

We propose a scheme to realize a three-qubit controlled phase gate and a multi-qubit controlled NOT gate of one qubit simultaneously controlling n-target qubits with a four-level quantum system in a cavity. The implementation time for multi-qubit controlled NOT gate is independent of the number of qubit. Three-qubit phase gate is generalized to n-qubit phase gate with multiple control qubits. The number of steps reduces linearly as compared to conventional gate decomposition method. Our scheme can be applied to various types of physical systems such as superconducting qubits coupled to a resonator and trapped atoms in a cavity. Our scheme does not require adjustment of level spacing during the gate implementation. We also show the implementation of Deutsch-Joza algorithm. Finally, we discuss the imperfections due to cavity decay and the possibility of physical implementation of our scheme.

Novel Quantum Dot Gate FETs and Nonvolatile Memories Using Lattice-Matched II-VI Gate Insulators

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, F. C.; Suarez, E.; Gogna, M.; Alamoody, F.; Butkiewicus, D.; Hohner, R.; Liaskas, T.; Karmakar, S.; Chan, P.-Y.; Miller, B.; Chandy, J.; Heller, E.

2009-08-01

This paper presents the successful use of ZnS/ZnMgS and other II-VI layers (lattice-matched or pseudomorphic) as high- k gate dielectrics in the fabrication of quantum dot (QD) gate Si field-effect transistors (FETs) and nonvolatile memory structures. Quantum dot gate FETs and nonvolatile memories have been fabricated in two basic configurations: (1) monodispersed cladded Ge nanocrystals (e.g., GeO x -cladded-Ge quantum dots) site-specifically self-assembled over the lattice-matched ZnMgS gate insulator in the channel region, and (2) ZnTe-ZnMgTe quantum dots formed by self-organization, using metalorganic chemical vapor-phase deposition (MOCVD), on ZnS-ZnMgS gate insulator layers grown epitaxially on Si substrates. Self-assembled GeO x -cladded Ge QD gate FETs, exhibiting three-state behavior, are also described. Preliminary results on InGaAs-on-InP FETs, using ZnMgSeTe/ZnSe gate insulator layers, are presented.

Coherent molecular transistor: control through variation of the gate wave function.

Science.gov (United States)

Ernzerhof, Matthias

2014-03-21

In quantum interference transistors (QUITs), the current through the device is controlled by variation of the gate component of the wave function that interferes with the wave function component joining the source and the sink. Initially, mesoscopic QUITs have been studied and more recently, QUITs at the molecular scale have been proposed and implemented. Typically, in these devices the gate lead is subjected to externally adjustable physical parameters that permit interference control through modifications of the gate wave function. Here, we present an alternative model of a molecular QUIT in which the gate wave function is directly considered as a variable and the transistor operation is discussed in terms of this variable. This implies that we specify the gate current as well as the phase of the gate wave function component and calculate the resulting current through the source-sink channel. Thus, we extend on prior works that focus on the phase of the gate wave function component as a control parameter while having zero or certain discrete values of the current. We address a large class of systems, including finite graphene flakes, and obtain analytic solutions for how the gate wave function controls the transistor.

Coherent molecular transistor: Control through variation of the gate wave function

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ernzerhof, Matthias

2014-01-01

In quantum interference transistors (QUITs), the current through the device is controlled by variation of the gate component of the wave function that interferes with the wave function component joining the source and the sink. Initially, mesoscopic QUITs have been studied and more recently, QUITs at the molecular scale have been proposed and implemented. Typically, in these devices the gate lead is subjected to externally adjustable physical parameters that permit interference control through modifications of the gate wave function. Here, we present an alternative model of a molecular QUIT in which the gate wave function is directly considered as a variable and the transistor operation is discussed in terms of this variable. This implies that we specify the gate current as well as the phase of the gate wave function component and calculate the resulting current through the source-sink channel. Thus, we extend on prior works that focus on the phase of the gate wave function component as a control parameter while having zero or certain discrete values of the current. We address a large class of systems, including finite graphene flakes, and obtain analytic solutions for how the gate wave function controls the transistor

The Development Needs of Newly Appointed Senior School Leaders in the Western Cape South Africa: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelius Jansen van Vuuren

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The essential role that senior school leaders play in school leadership teams to ensure effective strategic leadership in schools has been the subject of intense discussion for many years. Crucial to this debate is the establishment of professional learning and leadership approaches for newly appointed senior school leaders. Recommendations for policy and practice highlight the importance of appropriate, multifaceted, developmental support initiatives for newly appointed school leaders. In many countries, including South Africa, a teaching qualification and, in most cases, extensive teaching experience is the only requirement for being appointed as a senior school leader in a school. This tends to suggest that no further professional development is required for newly appointed school leaders, the problem addressed in this paper. This paper reports on the main findings of the perceived development needs of newly appointed senior school leaders in the Western Cape, South Africa, and suggests that school leaders occupy a unique and specialist role in education, which requires relevant and specific preparation to support effective leadership. The respondents of this study report a lack of contextualised training and support before and after their appointment in their new roles creating unique development needs. This paper, therefore, employs a mixed-method approach to gather data to understand the perceived needs of twenty newly appointed senior school leaders in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Towards Self-Clocked Gated OCDMA Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

Idris, S.; Osadola, T.; Glesk, I.

2013-02-01

A novel incoherent OCDMA receiver with incorporated all-optical clock recovery for self-synchronization of a time gate for the multi access interferences (MAI) suppression and minimizing the effect of data time jitter in incoherent OCDMA system was successfully developed and demonstrated. The solution was implemented and tested in a multiuser environment in an out of the laboratory OCDMA testbed with two-dimensional wavelength-hopping time-spreading coding scheme and OC-48 (2.5 Gbp/s) data rate. The self-clocked all-optical time gate uses SOA-based fibre ring laser optical clock, recovered all-optically from the received OCDMA traffic to control its switching window for cleaning the autocorrelation peak from the surrounding MAI. A wider eye opening was achieved when the all-optically recovered clock from received data was used for synchronization if compared to a static approach with the RF clock being generated by a RF synthesizer. Clean eye diagram was also achieved when recovered clock is used to drive time gating.

Efficient Atomic One-Qubit Phase Gate Realized by a Cavity QED and Identical Atoms System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He Yong; Jiang Nianquan

2010-01-01

We present a scheme to implement a one-qubit phase gate with a two-level atom crossing an optical cavity in which some identical atoms are trapped. One can conveniently acquire an arbitrary phase shift of the gate by properly choosing the number of atoms trapped in the cavity and the velocity of the atom crossing the cavity. The present scheme provides a very simple and efficient way for implementing one-qubit phase gate. (general)

New opening hours of the gates

CERN Multimedia

GS Department

2009-01-01

Please note the new opening hours of the gates as well as the intersites tunnel from the 19 May 2009: GATE A 7h - 19h GATE B 24h/24 GATE C 7h - 9h\t17h - 19h GATE D 8h - 12h\t13h - 16h GATE E 7h - 9h\t17h - 19h Prévessin 24h/24 The intersites tunnel will be opened from 7h30 to 18h non stop. GS-SEM Group Infrastructure and General Services Department

Sampling Number Effects in 2D and Range Imaging of Range-gated Acquisition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwon, Seong-Ouk; Park, Seung-Kyu; Baik, Sung-Hoon; Cho, Jai-Wan; Jeong, Kyung-Min

2015-01-01

In this paper, we analyzed the number effects of sampling images for making a 2D image and a range image from acquired RGI images. We analyzed the number effects of RGI images for making a 2D image and a range image using a RGI vision system. As the results, 2D image quality was not much depended on the number of sampling images but on how much well extract efficient RGI images. But, the number of RGI images was important for making a range image because range image quality was proportional to the number of RGI images. Image acquiring in a monitoring area of nuclear industry is an important function for safety inspection and preparing appropriate control plans. To overcome the non-visualization problem caused by airborne obstacle particles, vision systems should have extra-functions, such as active illumination lightening through disturbance airborne particles. One of these powerful active vision systems is a range-gated imaging system. The vision system based on the range-gated imaging system can acquire image data from raining or smoking environments. Range-gated imaging (RGI) is a direct active visualization technique using a highly sensitive image sensor and a high intensity illuminant. Currently, the range-gated imaging technique providing 2D and 3D images is one of emerging active vision technologies. The range-gated imaging system gets vision information by summing time sliced vision images. In the RGI system, a high intensity illuminant illuminates for ultra-short time and a highly sensitive image sensor is gated by ultra-short exposure time to only get the illumination light. Here, the illuminant illuminates objects by flashing strong light through airborne disturbance particles. Thus, in contrast to passive conventional vision systems, the RGI active vision technology robust for low-visibility environments

Sampling Number Effects in 2D and Range Imaging of Range-gated Acquisition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kwon, Seong-Ouk; Park, Seung-Kyu; Baik, Sung-Hoon; Cho, Jai-Wan; Jeong, Kyung-Min [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-10-15

In this paper, we analyzed the number effects of sampling images for making a 2D image and a range image from acquired RGI images. We analyzed the number effects of RGI images for making a 2D image and a range image using a RGI vision system. As the results, 2D image quality was not much depended on the number of sampling images but on how much well extract efficient RGI images. But, the number of RGI images was important for making a range image because range image quality was proportional to the number of RGI images. Image acquiring in a monitoring area of nuclear industry is an important function for safety inspection and preparing appropriate control plans. To overcome the non-visualization problem caused by airborne obstacle particles, vision systems should have extra-functions, such as active illumination lightening through disturbance airborne particles. One of these powerful active vision systems is a range-gated imaging system. The vision system based on the range-gated imaging system can acquire image data from raining or smoking environments. Range-gated imaging (RGI) is a direct active visualization technique using a highly sensitive image sensor and a high intensity illuminant. Currently, the range-gated imaging technique providing 2D and 3D images is one of emerging active vision technologies. The range-gated imaging system gets vision information by summing time sliced vision images. In the RGI system, a high intensity illuminant illuminates for ultra-short time and a highly sensitive image sensor is gated by ultra-short exposure time to only get the illumination light. Here, the illuminant illuminates objects by flashing strong light through airborne disturbance particles. Thus, in contrast to passive conventional vision systems, the RGI active vision technology robust for low-visibility environments.

A Study of an Appointment Scheduling System for Outpatients at the United States Air Force Academy Hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

1988-07-30

8a. NAME OF FUNDING/SPONSORING 8b. OFFICE SYMBOL 9. PROCUREMENT INSTRUMENT IDENTIFICATION NUMBER ORGANIZATION (If applicable) 8c. ADDRESS (City, State...Services are provided in General Dentistry, Oral Surgery, Periodontics, Prosthodontics, Endodontics , and Orthodontics (MHR 1987, 4-5). The hospital also...appointment D. Shields 4 clerks using a rotary wheel file. Schedules were forwarded to outpatien records to pull the patient record prior to the clinic

A Study to Determine the Optimal Patient Appointment System for the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center Outpatient Clinic

Science.gov (United States)

1988-06-01

Patient attitudes of health care services are complex and multidimensional (Powers, 394). Consumers expect to be treated courteously and promptly and...34, 891). When satisfied with health services, many patients will perceive the facility as efficient and worth the money spent. Satisfied customers will... health care facilities expect prompt appointments (Cupit, 140). It is for this reason, that in this era of consumerism , patient waiting time has emerged

Nanogranular SiO{sub 2} proton gated silicon layer transistor mimicking biological synapses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, M. J.; Huang, G. S., E-mail: gshuang@fudan.edu.cn, E-mail: pfeng@nju.edu.cn; Guo, Q. L.; Tian, Z. A.; Li, G. J.; Mei, Y. F. [Department of Materials Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433 (China); Feng, P., E-mail: gshuang@fudan.edu.cn, E-mail: pfeng@nju.edu.cn; Shao, F.; Wan, Q. [School of Electronic Science and Engineering and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China)

2016-06-20

Silicon on insulator (SOI)-based transistors gated by nanogranular SiO{sub 2} proton conducting electrolytes were fabricated to mimic synapse behaviors. This SOI-based device has both top proton gate and bottom buried oxide gate. Electrical transfer properties of top proton gate show hysteresis curves different from those of bottom gate, and therefore, excitatory post-synaptic current and paired pulse facilitation (PPF) behavior of biological synapses are mimicked. Moreover, we noticed that PPF index can be effectively tuned by the spike interval applied on the top proton gate. Synaptic behaviors and functions, like short-term memory, and its properties are also experimentally demonstrated in our device. Such SOI-based electronic synapses are promising for building neuromorphic systems.

The unilateral appointment of co-arbitrators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tufte-Kristensen, Johan

2016-01-01

on some important aspects of the procedure but leaves certain aspects and arguments unconsidered. The article approaches the appointment procedure from a neutral position. It identifies and considers the relevant rules, practices, and arguments in order to discuss the procedure’s implications...... of experienced arbitration practitioners have advocated against the procedure for some of the reasons above, whereas other experienced arbitration practitioners have defended the procedure because of its practical advantages and underlying rationales. Each of the previous contributions to the debate sheds light...

The pollution of the 'iron gate' reservoir

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Babic-Mladenovic, M.; Varga, S; Popovic, L.; Damjanovic, M.

2002-01-01

The paper presents the characteristics of the Iron Gate I (the Djerdap) Water Power and Navigational System, one of the largest in Europe (completed in 1972 by joint efforts of Yugoslavia and Romania). In this paper the attention is devoted to review of the sediment monitoring program and impacts of reservoir sedimentation, as well as to the investigations of water and sediment quality. Special consideration is paid to the issue of sediment pollution research needs. Namely, the hot spot of the 'Iron Gate' sedimentation represents a scarcely known pollution of sediment deposits. The present pollution probably is considerable, since the 'Iron Gate' reservoir drains about 577000 km 2 , with over 80 million inhabitants, and developed municipal and industrial infrastructure. Therefore, in the thirty-year reservoir life various types of sediment-bound pollutants entered and deposited within it. Especially severe incidents happened during 1999 (as a result of NATO bombing campaign) and 2000 (two accidental pollutions in the Tisza river catchment). The study of the 'Iron Gate' reservoir pollution should be prepared in order to enlighten the present state of reservoir sedimentation and pollution. The main objectives of the study are to enhance the government and public awareness of the present environmental state of the 'Iron Gate' reservoir and to serve as a baseline for all future actions. (author)

Implementation of respiratory-gated VMAT on a Versa HD linear accelerator.

Science.gov (United States)

Snyder, Jeffrey E; Flynn, Ryan T; Hyer, Daniel E

2017-09-01

The accurate delivery of respiratory-gated volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) treatment plans presents a challenge since the gantry rotation and collimator leaves must be repeatedly stopped and set into motion during each breathing cycle. In this study, we present the commissioning process for an Anzai gating system (AZ-733VI) on an Elekta Versa HD linear accelerator and make recommendations for successful clinical implementation. The commissioning tests include central axis dose consistency, profile consistency, gating beam-on/off delay, and comparison of gated versus nongated gamma pass rates for patient-specific quality assurance using four clinically commissioned photon energies: 6 MV, 6 FFF, 10 MV, and 10 FFF. The central axis dose constancy between gated and nongated deliveries was within 0.6% for all energies and the analysis of open field profiles for gated and nongated deliveries showed an agreement of 97.8% or greater when evaluated with a percent difference criteria of 1%. The measurement of the beam-on/off delay was done by evaluating images of a moving ball-bearing phantom triggered by the gating system and average beam-on delays of 0.22-0.29 s were observed. No measurable beam-off delay was present. Measurements of gated VMAT dose distributions resulted in decrements as high as 9% in the gamma passing rate as compared to nongated deliveries when evaluated against the planned dose distribution at 3%/3 mm. By decreasing the dose rate, which decreases the gantry speed during gated delivery, the gamma passing rates of gated and nongated treatments can be made equivalent. We present an empirically derived formula to limit the maximum dose rate during VMAT deliveries and show that by implementing a reduced dose rate, a gamma passing rate of greater than 95% (3%/3 mm) was obtained for all plan measurements. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of

Optical XOR gate

Science.gov (United States)

Vawter, G. Allen

2013-11-12

An optical XOR gate is formed as a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) from two sets of optical waveguide devices on a substrate, with each set of the optical waveguide devices including an electroabsorption modulator electrically connected in series with a waveguide photodetector. The optical XOR gate utilizes two digital optical inputs to generate an XOR function digital optical output. The optical XOR gate can be formed from III-V compound semiconductor layers which are epitaxially deposited on a III-V compound semiconductor substrate, and operates at a wavelength in the range of 0.8-2.0 .mu.m.

Optical identification of sea-mines - Gated viewing three-dimensional laser radar

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Busck, Jens

2005-01-01

A gated viewing high accuracy mono-static laser radar has been developed for the purpose of improving the optical underwater sea-mine identification handled by the Navy. In the final stage of the sea-mine detection, classification and identification process the Navy applies a remote operated...... vehicle for optical identification of the bottom seamine. The experimental results of the thesis indicate that replacing the conventional optical video and spotlight system applied by the Navy with the gated viewing two- and three-dimensional laser radar can improve the underwater optical sea...... of the short laser pulses (0.5 ns), the high laser pulse repetition rate (32.4 kHz), the fast gating camera (0.2 ns), the short camera delay steps (0.1 ns), the applied optical single mode fiber, and the applied algorithm for three-dimensional imaging. The gated viewing laser radar system configuration...

Respiratory guiding system for respiratory motion management in respiratory gated radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Seong Hee; Kim, Dong Su; Kim, Tae Ho; Suh, Tae Suk

2013-01-01

Respiratory guiding systems have been shown to improve the respiratory regularity. This, in turn, improves the efficiency of synchronized moving aperture radiation therapy, and it reduces the artifacts caused by irregular breathing in imaging techniques such as four-dimensional computed tomography (4D CT), which is used for treatment planning in RGRT. We have previously developed a respiratory guiding system that incorporates an individual-specific guiding waveform, which is easy to follow for each volunteer, to improve the respiratory regularity. The present study evaluates the application of this system to improve the respiratory regularity for respiratory-gated radiation therapy (RGRT). In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of an in-house-developed respiratory guiding system incorporating an individual specific guiding waveform to improve the respiratory regularity for RGRT. Most volunteers showed significantly less residual motion at each phase during guided breathing owing to the improvement in respiratory regularity. Therefore, the respiratory guiding system can clearly reduce the residual, or respiratory, motion in each phase. From the result, the CTV and the PTV margins during RGRT can be reduced by using the respiratory guiding system, which reduces the residual motions, thus improving the accuracy of RGRT

A biomimetic colorimetric logic gate system based on multi-functional peptide-mediated gold nanoparticle assembly.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yong; Li, Wang; He, Kai-Yu; Li, Pei; Huang, Yan; Nie, Zhou; Yao, Shou-Zhuo

2016-04-28

In natural biological systems, proteins exploit various functional peptide motifs to exert target response and activity switch, providing a functional and logic basis for complex cellular activities. Building biomimetic peptide-based bio-logic systems is highly intriguing but remains relatively unexplored due to limited logic recognition elements and complex signal outputs. In this proof-of-principle work, we attempted to address these problems by utilizing multi-functional peptide probes and the peptide-mediated nanoparticle assembly system. Here, the rationally designed peptide probes function as the dual-target responsive element specifically responsive to metal ions and enzymes as well as the mediator regulating the assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Taking advantage of Zn2+ ions and chymotrypsin as the model inputs of metal ions and enzymes, respectively, we constructed the peptide logic system computed by the multi-functional peptide probes and outputted by the readable colour change of AuNPs. In this way, the representative binary basic logic gates (AND, OR, INHIBIT, NAND, IMPLICATION) have been achieved by delicately coding the peptide sequence, demonstrating the versatility of our logic system. Additionally, we demonstrated that the three-input combinational logic gate (INHIBIT-OR) could also be successfully integrated and applied as a multi-tasking biosensor for colorimetric detection of dual targets. This nanoparticle-based peptide logic system presents a valid strategy to illustrate peptide information processing and provides a practical platform for executing peptide computing or peptide-related multiplexing sensing, implying that the controllable nanomaterial assembly is a promising and potent methodology for the advancement of biomimetic bio-logic computation.

Four-frame gated optical imager with 120-ps resolution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Young, P.E.; Hares, J.D.; Kilkenny, J.D.; Phillion, D.W.; Campbell, E.M.

1988-04-01

In this paper we describe the operation and applications of a framing camera capable of four separate two-dimensional images with each frame having a 120-ps gate width. Fast gating of a single frame is accomplished by using a wafer image intensifier tube in which the cathode is capacitively coupled to an external electrode placed outside of the photocathode of the tube. This electrode is then pulsed relative to the microchannel plate by a narrow (120 ps), high-voltage pulse. Multiple frames are obtained by using multiple gated tubes which share a single bias supply and pulser with relative gate times selected by the cable lengths between the tubes and the pulser. A beamsplitter system has been constructed which produces a separate image for each tube from a single scene. Applications of the framing camera to inertial confinement fusion experiments are discussed

Methods of appointment and qualifications of club doctors and physiotherapists in English professional football: some problems and issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Waddington, I; Roderick, M; Naik, R

2001-02-01

To examine the methods of appointment, experience, and qualifications of club doctors and physiotherapists in professional football. Semistructured tape recorded interviews with 12 club doctors, 10 club physiotherapists, and 27 current and former players. A questionnaire was also sent to 90 club doctors; 58 were returned. In almost all clubs, methods of appointment of doctors are informal and reflect poor employment practice: posts are rarely advertised and many doctors are appointed on the basis of personal contacts and without interview. Few club doctors had prior experience or qualifications in sports medicine and very few have a written job description. The club doctor is often not consulted about the appointment of the physiotherapist; physiotherapists are usually appointed informally, often without interview, and often by the manager without involving anyone who is qualified in medicine or physiotherapy. Half of all clubs do not have a qualified (chartered) physiotherapist; such unqualified physiotherapists are in a weak position to resist threats to their clinical autonomy, particularly those arising from managers' attempts to influence clinical decisions. Almost all aspects of the appointment of club doctors and physiotherapists need careful re-examination.

Use of Six Sigma Methodology to Reduce Appointment Lead-Time in Obstetrics Outpatient Department.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz Barrios, Miguel A; Felizzola Jiménez, Heriberto

2016-10-01

This paper focuses on the issue of longer appointment lead-time in the obstetrics outpatient department of a maternal-child hospital in Colombia. Because of extended appointment lead-time, women with high-risk pregnancy could develop severe complications in their health status and put their babies at risk. This problem was detected through a project selection process explained in this article and to solve it, Six Sigma methodology has been used. First, the process was defined through a SIPOC diagram to identify its input and output variables. Second, six sigma performance indicators were calculated to establish the process baseline. Then, a fishbone diagram was used to determine the possible causes of the problem. These causes were validated with the aid of correlation analysis and other statistical tools. Later, improvement strategies were designed to reduce appointment lead-time in this department. Project results evidenced that average appointment lead-time reduced from 6,89 days to 4,08 days and the deviation standard dropped from 1,57 days to 1,24 days. In this way, the hospital will serve pregnant women faster, which represents a risk reduction of perinatal and maternal mortality.

Philip II’s Quest. The Appointment of Governors-General during the Dutch Revolt (1559-1598

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Soen

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Philip II’s Quest: The Appointment of Governors-General during the Dutch Revolt (1559-1598Recent historiographical studies have presented the Habsburg appointment of governors-general during the Dutch Revolt as the outcome of factional infighting at the Spanish Court. While this so-called ‘faction model’ has yielded new insights, it also raises a number of problems. Firstly, in the new model, the role of the dynasty is unduly relegated to the background – even though Philip II’s appointment decisions were mainly driven by dynastic considerations. Secondly, the power struggle at the Spanish Court was not only a conflict between court factions, but also between noble houses vying for prestige and trying to secure positions for their offspring. Thirdly, there is an excessive focus on the Spanish Court, while the feuds between noble houses in the Low Countries also played a role in the interim appointments made during the Revolt. Finally, Philip II always looked for the most suitable candidate in terms of administration and warfare during the Dutch Revolt, in accordance with the constraints of the composite Spanish monarchy. Only the combination of these four (frequently contradictory motives reveals how Philip II’s appointment of governors can be seen as a quest for the right man or woman in the right place.

How much does a diabetes out-patient appointment actually cost? An argument for PLICS.

Science.gov (United States)

Grant, Paul

2015-01-01

The national tariff system for clinical processes and procedures aims to put a discrete unit cost on clinical activity. Calculating such costs can be subject to a great deal of local variation and interpretation. Given the rising costs of diabetes the purpose of this paper is to ask the question what does a diabetes outpatient appointment in the UK NHS actually cost? This is important in a time of financial austerity and healthcare rationing because it can be difficult to decipher the attribution of costs within the acute hospital setting. Exploring this question, the author considers the present cost model and analyse in terms of the language of unit model cost; the basic tariff system and how it works in diabetes and looking at internal cost information the author attempts to unbundle the cost to provide a more accurate value for the cost object. One major finding is that costs and overheads are divided arbitrarily as opposed to being distributed on the basis of measured relative consumption. Alternative costing methods are appraised to demonstrate that a patient level episodic costing approach such as patient level information and costing system (PLICS) which incorporates aspects of activity-based costing (ABC) would be far more appropriate. Using time driven ABC (TDABC), a new patient appointment costs £162 for 30 minutes and a follow-up appointment costs £81 for 15 minutes. PLICS has the added benefit of greater financial and clinical transparency and this goes some way towards the holy grail of greater engagement with the doctors delivering clinical care. It would appear that there are different purposes of different costing systems. One can argue that a costing system is there to both contain costs and divide overheads and demonstrate activity. Depending on how data are interpreted costing information can be an agent of enlightenment and behavioural modification for healthcare professionals to show them their direct and indirect costs, their capacity and

Signatures of Mechanosensitive Gating.

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Richard G

2017-01-10

The question of how mechanically gated membrane channels open and close is notoriously difficult to address, especially if the protein structure is not available. This perspective highlights the relevance of micropipette-aspirated single-particle tracking-used to obtain a channel's diffusion coefficient, D, as a function of applied membrane tension, σ-as an indirect assay for determining functional behavior in mechanosensitive channels. While ensuring that the protein remains integral to the membrane, such methods can be used to identify not only the gating mechanism of a protein, but also associated physical moduli, such as torsional and dilational rigidity, which correspond to the protein's effective shape change. As an example, three distinct D-versus-σ "signatures" are calculated, corresponding to gating by dilation, gating by tilt, and gating by a combination of both dilation and tilt. Both advantages and disadvantages of the approach are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quantum gate decomposition algorithms.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Slepoy, Alexander

2006-07-01

Quantum computing algorithms can be conveniently expressed in a format of a quantum logical circuits. Such circuits consist of sequential coupled operations, termed ''quantum gates'', or quantum analogs of bits called qubits. We review a recently proposed method [1] for constructing general ''quantum gates'' operating on an qubits, as composed of a sequence of generic elementary ''gates''.

Dose profile measurements during respiratory-gated lung stereotactic radiotherapy: A phantom study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jong, W L; Ung, N M; Wong, J H D; Ng, K H

2016-01-01

During stereotactic body radiotherapy, high radiation dose (∼60 Gy) is delivered to the tumour in small fractionation regime. In this study, the dosimetric characteristics were studied using radiochromic film during respiratory-gated and non-gated lung stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Specifically, the effect of respiratory cycle and amplitude, as well as gating window on the dosimetry were studied. In this study, the dose profiles along the irradiated area were measured. The dose profiles for respiratory-gated radiation delivery with different respiratory or tumour motion amplitudes, gating windows and respiratory time per cycle were in agreement with static radiation delivery. The respiratory gating system was able to deliver the radiation dose accurately (±1.05 mm) in the longitudinal direction. Although the treatment time for respiratory-gated SBRT was prolonged, this approach can potentially reduce the margin for internal tumour volume without compromising the tumour coverage. In addition, the normal tissue sparing effect can be improved. (paper)

Location based mobile app for doctor's appointment inSaudi Arabia ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences ... Reducing waiting times and surgeon idle time improves the quality of service and efficiency ... to develop an appointment management application for mobile devices using the Android platform.

Impact of health portal enrollment with email reminders on adherence to clinic appointments: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Horvath, Monica; Levy, Janet; L'Engle, Pete; Carlson, Boyd; Ahmad, Asif; Ferranti, Jeffrey

2011-05-26

Internet portal technologies that provide access to portions of electronic health records have the potential to revolutionize patients' involvement in their care. However, relatively few descriptions of the demographic characteristics of portal enrollees or of the effects of portal technology on quality outcomes exist. This study examined data from patients who attended one of seven Duke Medicine clinics and who were offered the option of enrolling in and using the Duke Medicine HealthView portal (HVP). The HVP allows patients to manage details of their appointment scheduling and provides automated email appointment reminders in addition to the telephone and mail reminders that all patients receive. Our objective was to test whether portal enrollment with an email reminder functionality is significantly related to decreases in rates of appointment "no-shows," which are known to impair clinic operational efficiency. Appointment activity during a 1-year period was examined for all patients attending one of seven Duke Medicine clinics. Patients were categorized as portal enrollees or as nonusers either by their status at time of appointment or at the end of the 1-year period. Demographic characteristics and no-show rates among these groups were compared. A binomial logistic regression model was constructed to measure the adjusted impact of HVP enrollment on no-show rates, given confounding factors. To demonstrate the effect of HVP use over time, monthly no-show rates were calculated for patient appointment keeping and contrasted between preportal and postportal deployment periods. Across seven clinics, 58,942 patients, 15.7% (9239/58,942) of whom were portal enrollees, scheduled 198,199 appointments with an overall no-show rate of 9.9% (19,668/198,199). We found that HVP enrollees were significantly more likely to be female, white, and privately insured compared with nonusers. Bivariate no-show rate differences between portal enrollment groups varied widely according

Gated x-ray detector for the National Ignition Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oertel, John A.; Aragonez, Robert; Archuleta, Tom; Barnes, Cris; Casper, Larry; Fatherley, Valerie; Heinrichs, Todd; King, Robert; Landers, Doug; Lopez, Frank; Sanchez, Phillip; Sandoval, George; Schrank, Lou; Walsh, Peter; Bell, Perry; Brown, Matt; Costa, Robert; Holder, Joe; Montelongo, Sam; Pederson, Neal

2006-01-01

Two new gated x-ray imaging cameras have recently been designed, constructed, and delivered to the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, CA. These gated x-Ray detectors are each designed to fit within an aluminum airbox with a large capacity cooling plane and are fitted with an array of environmental housekeeping sensors. These instruments are significantly different from earlier generations of gated x-ray images due, in part, to an innovative impedance matching scheme, advanced phosphor screens, pulsed phosphor circuits, precision assembly fixturing, unique system monitoring, and complete remote computer control. Preliminary characterization has shown repeatable uniformity between imaging strips, improved spatial resolution, and no detectable impedance reflections

Design Principles of A Sigma-delta Flux-gate Magnetometer

Science.gov (United States)

Magnes, W.; Valavanoglou, A.; Pierce, D.; Frank, A.; Schwingenschuh, K.

A state-of-the-art flux-gate magnetometer is characterised by magnetic field resolution of several pT in a wide frequency range, low power consumption, low weight and high robustness. Therefore, flux-gate magnetometers are frequently used for ground-based Earth's field observation as well as for measurements aboard scientific space missions. But both traditional analogue and recently developed digital flux-gate magnetometers need low power and high-resolution analogue-to-digital converters for signal quan- tization. The disadvantage of such converters is the low radiation hardness. This fact has led to the idea of combining a traditional analogue flux-gate regulation circuit with that of a discretely realized sigma-delta converter in order to get a radiation hard and further miniaturized magnetometer. The name sigma-delta converter is derived from putting an integrator in front of a 1-bit delta modulator which forms the sigma-delta loop. It is followed by a digital decimation filter realized in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The flux-gate regulation and the sigma-delta loop are quite similar in the way of realizing the integrator and feedback circuit, which makes it easy to com- bine these two systems. The presented talk deals with the design principles and the results of a first bread board model.

Development of anti-biofouling methods for gate facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fukuoka, Mari; Akamine, Kenichi; Iai, Yuuichi; Takatoo, Norihiro; Fukushima, Noriaki

2016-01-01

In the maintenance and management of gate facilities, a large sum of money and labor are required to remove and clean organisms that attach themselves to the facilities. That is why we developed two anti-biofouling systems, one that uses a weak electric current and another that uses ultrasonic waves. We carried out basic examinations and actual environment examinations to verify the effects of these methods. As a result, it has been confirmed that these methods effectively anti-foul the parts they are applied to, and that they can be used on gate facilities. In the future, we will evaluate their adaptability to aqueducts, such as those used in thermal and nuclear power plants, and marine structures, such as floating breakwaters, in addition to gate facilities. (author)

Hybrid Electric Power Train and Control Strategies Automotive Technology Education (GATE) Program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andrew Frank

2006-05-31

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) offer societal benefits through their ability to displace the use of petroleum fuels. Petroleum fuels represent a polluting and politically destabilizing energy carrier. PHEV technologies can move transportation away from petroleum fuel sources by enabling domestically generated electricity and liquids bio-fuels to serve as a carrier for transportation energy. Additionally, the All-Electric-Range (AER) offered by PHEVs can significantly reduce demand for expensive and polluting liquid fuels. The GATE funding received during the 1998 through 2004 funding cycle by the UC Davis Hybrid Electric Vehicle Center (HEVC) was used to advance and train researchers in PHEV technologies. GATE funding was used to construct a rigorous PHEV curriculum, provide financial support for HEVC researchers, and provide material support for research efforts. A rigorous curriculum was developed through the UC Davis Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Department to train HEVC researchers. Students' research benefited from this course work by advancing the graduate student researchers' understanding of key PHEV design considerations. GATE support assisted HEVC researchers in authoring technical articles and producing patents. By supporting HEVC researchers multiple Master's theses were written as well as journal articles and publications. The topics from these publications include Continuously Variable Transmission control strategies and PHEV cross platform controls software development. The GATE funding has been well used to advance PHEV systems. The UC Davis Hybrid Electric Vehicle Center is greatly appreciative for the opportunities GATE funding provided. The goals and objectives for the HEVC GATE funding were to nourish engineering research in PHEV technologies. The funding supplied equipment needed to allow researchers to investigate PHEV design sensitivities and to further optimize system components. Over a dozen PHEV

Efficiency of respiratory-gated delivery of synchrotron-based pulsed proton irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsunashima, Yoshikazu; Vedam, Sastry; Dong, Lei; Bues, Martin; Balter, Peter; Smith, Alfred; Mohan, Radhe; Umezawa, Masumi; Sakae, Takeji

2008-01-01

Significant differences exist in respiratory-gated proton beam delivery with a synchrotron-based accelerator system when compared to photon therapy with a conventional linear accelerator. Delivery of protons with a synchrotron accelerator is governed by a magnet excitation cycle pattern. Optimal synchronization of the magnet excitation cycle pattern with the respiratory motion pattern is critical to the efficiency of respiratory-gated proton delivery. There has been little systematic analysis to optimize the accelerator's operational parameters to improve gated treatment efficiency. The goal of this study was to estimate the overall efficiency of respiratory-gated synchrotron-based proton irradiation through realistic simulation. Using 62 respiratory motion traces from 38 patients, we simulated respiratory gating for duty cycles of 30%, 20% and 10% around peak exhalation for various fixed and variable magnet excitation patterns. In each case, the time required to deliver 100 monitor units in both non-gated and gated irradiation scenarios was determined. Based on results from this study, the minimum time required to deliver 100 MU was 1.1 min for non-gated irradiation. For respiratory-gated delivery at a 30% duty cycle around peak exhalation, corresponding average delivery times were typically three times longer with a fixed magnet excitation cycle pattern. However, when a variable excitation cycle was allowed in synchrony with the patient's respiratory cycle, the treatment time only doubled. Thus, respiratory-gated delivery of synchrotron-based pulsed proton irradiation is feasible and more efficient when a variable magnet excitation cycle pattern is used

Liquid-based gating mechanism with tunable multiphase selectivity and antifouling behaviour

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hou, X; Hu, YH; Grinthal, A; Khan, M; Aizenberg, J

2015-03-04

Living organisms make extensive use of micro- and nanometre-sized pores as gatekeepers for controlling the movement of fluids, vapours and solids between complex environments. The ability of such pores to coordinate multiphase transport, in a highly selective and subtly triggered fashion and without clogging, has inspired interest in synthetic gated pores for applications ranging from fluid processing to 3D printing and lab-on-chip systems(1-10). But although specific gating and transport behaviours have been realized by precisely tailoring pore surface chemistries and pore geometries(6,11-17), a single system capable of controlling complex, selective multiphase transport has remained a distant prospect, and fouling is nearly inevitable(11,12). Here we introduce a gating mechanism that uses a capillary-stabilized liquid as a reversible, reconfigurable gate that fills and seals pores in the closed state, and creates a non-fouling, liquid-lined pore in the open state. Theoretical modelling and experiments demonstrate that for each transport substance, the gating threshold-the pressure needed to open the pores-can be rationally tuned over a wide pressure range. This enables us to realize in one system differential response profiles for a variety of liquids and gases, even letting liquids flow through the pore while preventing gas from escaping. These capabilities allow us to dynamically modulate gas-liquid sorting in a microfluidic flow and to separate a three-phase air-water-oil mixture, with the liquid lining ensuring sustained antifouling behaviour. Because the liquid gating strategy enables efficient long-term operation and can be applied to a variety of pore structures and membrane materials, and to micro- as well as macroscale fluid systems, we expect it to prove useful in a wide range of applications.

Gate-keeping in the Age of Information Society

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Kim Normann; Medaglia, Rony; Henriksen, Helle Zinner

’ being reluctant to accept imposed standards and control from central level (top-down) but also avoiding demands from parents (and children) on transparency and accountability (bottom-up). The lack of accessibility of grades on the web can thus be seen as a classical gate-keeping mechanism evolving...... in the age of information society where expectations of end-of-gatekeeping by providing accessibility and transparency using information systems has been outnumbered by classical forces of gate-keeping....

Prospective respiratory-gated micro-CT of free breathing rodents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ford, Nancy L.; Nikolov, Hristo N.; Norley, Chris J.D.; Thornton, Michael M.; Foster, Paula J.; Drangova, Maria; Holdsworth, David W.

2005-01-01

Microcomputed tomography (Micro-CT) has the potential to noninvasively image the structure of organs in rodent models with high spatial resolution and relatively short image acquisition times. However, motion artifacts associated with the normal respiratory motion of the animal may arise when imaging the abdomen or thorax. To reduce these artifacts and the accompanying loss of spatial resolution, we propose a prospective respiratory gating technique for use with anaesthetized, free-breathing rodents. A custom-made bed with an embedded pressure chamber was connected to a pressure transducer. Anaesthetized animals were placed in the prone position on the bed with their abdomens located over the chamber. During inspiration, the motion of the diaphragm caused an increase in the chamber pressure, which was converted into a voltage signal by the transducer. An output voltage was used to trigger image acquisition at any desired time point in the respiratory cycle. Digital radiographic images were acquired of anaesthetized, free-breathing rats with a digital radiographic system to correlate the respiratory wave form with respiration-induced organ motion. The respiratory wave form was monitored and recorded simultaneously with the x-ray radiation pulses, and an imaging window was defined, beginning at end expiration. Phantom experiments were performed to verify that the respiratory gating apparatus was triggering the micro-CT system. Attached to the distensible phantom were 100 μm diameter copper wires and the measured full width at half maximum was used to assess differences in image quality between respiratory-gated and ungated imaging protocols. This experiment allowed us to quantify the improvement in the spatial resolution, and the reduction of motion artifacts caused by moving structures, in the images resulting from respiratory-gated image acquisitions. The measured wire diameters were 0.135 mm for the stationary phantom image, 0.137 mm for the image gated at end

Compiling gate networks on an Ising quantum computer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bowdrey, M.D.; Jones, J.A.; Knill, E.; Laflamme, R.

2005-01-01

Here we describe a simple mechanical procedure for compiling a quantum gate network into the natural gates (pulses and delays) for an Ising quantum computer. The aim is not necessarily to generate the most efficient pulse sequence, but rather to develop an efficient compilation algorithm that can be easily implemented in large spin systems. The key observation is that it is not always necessary to refocus all the undesired couplings in a spin system. Instead, the coupling evolution can simply be tracked and then corrected at some later time. Although described within the language of NMR, the algorithm is applicable to any design of quantum computer based on Ising couplings

Self-gated fat-suppressed cardiac cine MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Ingle, R Reeve; Santos, Juan M; Overall, William R; McConnell, Michael V; Hu, Bob S; Nishimura, Dwight G

2015-05-01

To develop a self-gated alternating repetition time balanced steady-state free precession (ATR-SSFP) pulse sequence for fat-suppressed cardiac cine imaging. Cardiac gating is computed retrospectively using acquired magnetic resonance self-gating data, enabling cine imaging without the need for electrocardiogram (ECG) gating. Modification of the slice-select rephasing gradients of an ATR-SSFP sequence enables the acquisition of a one-dimensional self-gating readout during the unused short repetition time (TR). Self-gating readouts are acquired during every TR of segmented, breath-held cardiac scans. A template-matching algorithm is designed to compute cardiac trigger points from the self-gating signals, and these trigger points are used for retrospective cine reconstruction. The proposed approach is compared with ECG-gated ATR-SSFP and balanced steady-state free precession in 10 volunteers and five patients. The difference of ECG and self-gating trigger times has a variability of 13 ± 11 ms (mean ± SD). Qualitative reviewer scoring and ranking indicate no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05) between self-gated and ECG-gated ATR-SSFP images. Quantitative blood-myocardial border sharpness is not significantly different among self-gated ATR-SSFP ( 0.61±0.15 mm -1), ECG-gated ATR-SSFP ( 0.61±0.15 mm -1), or conventional ECG-gated balanced steady-state free precession cine MRI ( 0.59±0.15 mm -1). The proposed self-gated ATR-SSFP sequence enables fat-suppressed cardiac cine imaging at 1.5 T without the need for ECG gating and without decreasing the imaging efficiency of ATR-SSFP. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Efficient controlled-phase gate for single-spin qubits in quantum dots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meunier, T.; Calado, V.E.; Vandersypen, L.M.K.

2011-01-01

Two-qubit interactions are at the heart of quantum information processing. For single-spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots, the exchange gate has always been considered the natural two-qubit gate. The recent integration of a magnetic field or g-factor gradients in coupled quantum dot systems

Application of Field Programmable Gate Arrays in Instrumentation and Control Systems of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are gaining increased attention worldwide for application in nuclear power plant (NPP) instrumentation and control (I&C) systems, particularly for safety and safety related applications, but also for non-safety ones. NPP operators and equipment suppliers see potential advantages of FPGA based digital I&C systems as compared to microprocessor based applications. This is because FPGA based systems can be made simpler, more testable and less reliant on complex software (e.g. operating systems), and are easier to qualify for safety and safety related applications. This publication results from IAEA consultancy meetings covering the various aspects, including design, qualification, implementation, licensing, and operation, of FPGA based I&C systems in NPPs

Low band-to-band tunnelling and gate tunnelling current in novel nanoscale double-gate architecture: simulations and investigation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Datta, Deepanjan; Ganguly, Samiran; Dasgupta, S

2007-01-01

Large band-to-band tunnelling (BTBT) and gate leakage current can limit scalability of nanoscale devices. In this paper, we have proposed a novel nanoscale parallel connected heteromaterial double gate (PCHEM-DG) architecture with triple metal gate which significantly suppress BTBT leakage, making it efficient for low power design in the sub-10 nm regime. We have also proposed a triple gate device with p + poly-n + poly-p + poly gate which has substantially low gate leakage over symmetric DG MOSFET. Simulations are performed using a 2D Poisson-Schroedinger simulator and verified with a 2D device simulator ATLAS. We conclude that, due to intrinsic body doping, negligible gate leakage, suppressed BTBT over symmetric DG devices, metal gate (MG) PCHEM-DG MOSFET is efficient for low power circuit design in the nanometre regime

Visualization of neonatal coronary arteries on multidetector row CT: ECG-gated versus non-ECG-gated technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsai, I.C.; Lee, Tain; Chen, Min-Chi; Fu, Yun-Ching; Jan, Sheng-Lin; Wang, Chung-Chi; Chang, Yen

2007-01-01

Multidetector CT (MDCT) seems to be a promising tool for detection of neonatal coronary arteries, but whether the ECG-gated or non-ECG-gated technique should be used has not been established. To compare the detection rate and image quality of neonatal coronary arteries on MDCT using ECG-gated and non-ECG-gated techniques. Twelve neonates with complex congenital heart disease were included. The CT scan was acquired using an ECG-gated technique, and the most quiescent phase of the RR interval was selected to represent the ECG-gated images. The raw data were then reconstructed without the ECG signal to obtain non-ECG-gated images. The detection rate and image quality of nine coronary artery segments in the two sets of images were then compared. A two-tailed paired t test was used with P values <0.05 considered as statistically significant. In all coronary segments the ECG-gated technique had a better detection rate and produced images of better quality. The difference between the two techniques ranged from 25% in the left main coronary artery to 100% in the distal right coronary artery. For neonates referred for MDCT, if evaluation of coronary artery anatomy is important for the clinical management or surgical planning, the ECG-gated technique should be used because it can reliably detect the coronary arteries. (orig.)

25 CFR 291.10 - What is the role of the mediator appointed by the Secretary?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is the role of the mediator appointed by the... ENTERPRISES CLASS III GAMING PROCEDURES § 291.10 What is the role of the mediator appointed by the Secretary? (a) The mediator must ask the Indian tribe and the State to submit their last best proposal for Class...

Instrumentation for Gate Current Noise Measurements on sub-100 nm MOS Transistors

CERN Document Server

Gaioni, L; Ratti, L; Re, V; Speziali, V; Traversi, G

2008-01-01

This work describes a measuring system that was developed to characterize the gate current noise performances of CMOS devices with minimum feature size in the 100 nm span. These devices play an essential role in the design of present daymixedsignal integrated circuits, because of the advantages associated with the scaling process. The reduction in the gate oxide thickness brought about by CMOS technology downscaling leads to a non-negligible gate current due to direct tunneling phenomena; this current represents a noise source which requires an accurate characterization for optimum analog design. In this paper, two instruments able to perform measurements in two different ranges of gate current values will be discussed. Some of the results of gate current noise characterization will also be presented.

Controlling flow-induced vibrations of flood barrier gates with data-driven and finite-element modelling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erdbrink, C.D.; Krzhizhanovskaya, V.V.; Sloot, P.M.A.; Klijn, F.; Schweckendiek, T.

2012-01-01

Operation of flood barrier gates is sometimes hampered by flow-induced vibrations. Although the physics is understood for specific gate types, it remains challenging to judge dynamic gate behaviour for unanticipated conditions. This paper presents a hybrid modelling system for predicting vibrations

Quantum iSWAP gate in optical cavities with a cyclic three-level system

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Guo-an; Qiao, Hao-xue; Lu, Hua

2018-04-01

In this paper we present a scheme to directly implement the iSWAP gate by passing a cyclic three-level system across a two-mode cavity quantum electrodynamics. In the scheme, a three-level Δ -type atom ensemble prepared in its ground state mediates the interaction between the two-cavity modes. For this theoretical model, we also analyze its performance under practical noise, including spontaneous emission and the decay of the cavity modes. It is shown that our scheme may have a high fidelity under the practical noise.

78 FR 14071 - Notice of Appointment of Members to the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-04

...,'' Charles Boyer, Dean, Jordan College of Agriculture and Technology, California State University-Fresno... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Office of the Secretary Notice of Appointment of Members to the National... Act, 5 U.S.C. App 2, the United States Department of Agriculture announces the appointments made by...

High-κ gate dielectrics: Current status and materials properties considerations

Science.gov (United States)

Wilk, G. D.; Wallace, R. M.; Anthony, J. M.

2001-05-01

Many materials systems are currently under consideration as potential replacements for SiO2 as the gate dielectric material for sub-0.1 μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. A systematic consideration of the required properties of gate dielectrics indicates that the key guidelines for selecting an alternative gate dielectric are (a) permittivity, band gap, and band alignment to silicon, (b) thermodynamic stability, (c) film morphology, (d) interface quality, (e) compatibility with the current or expected materials to be used in processing for CMOS devices, (f) process compatibility, and (g) reliability. Many dielectrics appear favorable in some of these areas, but very few materials are promising with respect to all of these guidelines. A review of current work and literature in the area of alternate gate dielectrics is given. Based on reported results and fundamental considerations, the pseudobinary materials systems offer large flexibility and show the most promise toward successful integration into the expected processing conditions for future CMOS technologies, especially due to their tendency to form at interfaces with Si (e.g. silicates). These pseudobinary systems also thereby enable the use of other high-κ materials by serving as an interfacial high-κ layer. While work is ongoing, much research is still required, as it is clear that any material which is to replace SiO2 as the gate dielectric faces a formidable challenge. The requirements for process integration compatibility are remarkably demanding, and any serious candidates will emerge only through continued, intensive investigation.

Measurement of time delay for a prospectively gated CT simulator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Goharian M

2010-01-01

Full Text Available For the management of mobile tumors, respiratory gating is the ideal option, both during imaging and during therapy. The major advantage of respiratory gating during imaging is that it is possible to create a single artifact-free CT data-set during a selected phase of the patient′s breathing cycle. The purpose of the present work is to present a simple technique to measure the time delay during acquisition of a prospectively gated CT. The time delay of a Philips Brilliance BigBore™ (Philips Medical Systems, Madison, WI scanner attached to a Varian Real-Time Position Management™ (RPM system (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA was measured. Two methods were used to measure the CT time delay: using a motion phantom and using a recorded data file from the RPM system. In the first technique, a rotating wheel phantom was altered by placing two plastic balls on its axis and rim, respectively. For a desired gate, the relative positions of the balls were measured from the acquired CT data and converted into corresponding phases. Phase difference was calculated between the measured phases and the desired phases. Using period of motion, the phase difference was converted into time delay. The Varian RPM system provides an external breathing signal; it also records transistor-transistor logic (TTL ′X-Ray ON′ status signal from the CT scanner in a text file. The TTL ′X-Ray ON′ indicates the start of CT image acquisition. Thus, knowledge of the start time of CT acquisition, combined with the real-time phase and amplitude data from the external respiratory signal, provides time-stamping of all images in an axial CT scan. The TTL signal with time-stamp was used to calculate when (during the breathing cycle a slice was recorded. Using the two approaches, the time delay between the prospective gating signal and CT simulator has been determined to be 367 ± 40 ms. The delay requires corrections both at image acquisition and while setting gates for

Measurement of time delay for a prospectively gated CT simulator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goharian, M.; Khan, R.F.H.

2010-01-01

For the management of mobile tumors, respiratory gating is the ideal option, both during imaging and during therapy. The major advantage of respiratory gating during imaging is that it is possible to create a single artifact-free CT data-set during a selected phase of the patient's breathing cycle. The purpose of the present work is to present a simple technique to measure the time delay during acquisition of a prospectively gated CT. The time delay of a Philips Brilliance BigBore (Philips Medical Systems, Madison, WI) scanner attached to a Varian Real-Time Position Management (RPM) system (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA) was measured. Two methods were used to measure the CT time delay: using a motion phantom and using a recorded data file from the RPM system. In the first technique, a rotating wheel phantom was altered by placing two plastic balls on its axis and rim, respectively. For a desired gate, the relative positions of the balls were measured from the acquired CT data and converted into corresponding phases. Phase difference was calculated between the measured phases and the desired phases. Using period of motion, the phase difference was converted into time delay. The Varian RPM system provides an external breathing signal; it also records transistor-transistor logic (TTL) 'X-Ray ON' status signal from the CT scanner in a text file. The TTL 'X-Ray ON' indicates the start of CT image acquisition. Thus, knowledge of the start time of CT acquisition, combined with the real-time phase and amplitude data from the external respiratory signal, provides time-stamping of all images in an axial CT scan. The TTL signal with time-stamp was used to calculate when (during the breathing cycle) a slice was recorded. Using the two approaches, the time delay between the prospective gating signal and CT simulator has been determined to be 367 ± 40 ms. The delay requires corrections both at image acquisition and while setting gates for the treatment delivery

Low band-to-band tunnelling and gate tunnelling current in novel nanoscale double-gate architecture: simulations and investigation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Datta, Deepanjan [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906 (United States); Ganguly, Samiran [Department of Electronics Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad-826004 (India); Dasgupta, S [Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-247667 (India)

2007-05-30

Large band-to-band tunnelling (BTBT) and gate leakage current can limit scalability of nanoscale devices. In this paper, we have proposed a novel nanoscale parallel connected heteromaterial double gate (PCHEM-DG) architecture with triple metal gate which significantly suppress BTBT leakage, making it efficient for low power design in the sub-10 nm regime. We have also proposed a triple gate device with p{sup +} poly-n{sup +} poly-p{sup +} poly gate which has substantially low gate leakage over symmetric DG MOSFET. Simulations are performed using a 2D Poisson-Schroedinger simulator and verified with a 2D device simulator ATLAS. We conclude that, due to intrinsic body doping, negligible gate leakage, suppressed BTBT over symmetric DG devices, metal gate (MG) PCHEM-DG MOSFET is efficient for low power circuit design in the nanometre regime.

Teleportation-based Toffoli gate on cluster states via the Bell state analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo Ying; Huang Dazu; Lee, Moon Ho

2013-01-01

An optical Toffoli gate is demonstrated via teleportations on the six-qubit entangling cluster state generated from single-qubit photons. It is implemented on the basis of entanglement swapping of the combined quantum system with three independent Bell state measurements. The output of this gate is then restored by suitable local operations and classical communications. We evaluate the implementing performance of the Toffoli gate fidelity for the operation process in different computational bases. (paper)

Why Patients Miss Follow-Up Appointments: A Prospective Control ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Reasons include: transport (19 responses), ill-health (6) and financial constraints (5). State transport was unavailable to almost twothirds of the responders who cited transport as a problem. Conclusions: The 17% missed appointment rate is largely due to transport constraints. The commonest time for patients to miss ...

Use of the GATE Monte Carlo package for dosimetry applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Visvikis, D. [INSERM U650, LaTIM, University Hospital Medical School, F 29609 Brest (France)]. E-mail: Visvikis.Dimitris@univ-brest.fr; Bardies, M. [INSERM U601, CHU Nantes, F 44093 Nantes (France); Chiavassa, S. [INSERM U601, CHU Nantes, F 44093 Nantes (France); Danford, C. [Department of Medical Physics, MSKCC, New York (United States); Kirov, A. [Department of Medical Physics, MSKCC, New York (United States); Lamare, F. [INSERM U650, LaTIM, University Hospital Medical School, F 29609 Brest (France); Maigne, L. [Departement de Curietherapie-Radiotherapie, Centre Jean Perrin, F 63000 Clemont-Ferrand (France); Staelens, S. [UGent-ELIS, St-Pietersnieuwstraat, 41, B 9000 Gent (Belgium); Taschereau, R. [CRUMP Institute for Molecular Imaging, UCLA, Los Angeles (United States)

2006-12-20

One of the roles for Monte Carlo (MC) simulation studies is in the area of dosimetry. A number of different codes dedicated to dosimetry applications are available and widely used today, such as MCNP, EGSnrc and PTRAN. However, such codes do not easily facilitate the description of complicated 3D sources or emission tomography systems and associated data flow, which may be useful in different dosimetry application domains. Such problems can be overcome by the use of specific MC codes such as GATE (GEANT4 Application to Tomographic Emission), which is based on Geant4 libraries, providing a scripting interface with a number of advantages for the simulation of SPECT and PET systems. Despite this potential, its major disadvantage is in terms of efficiency involving long execution times for applications such as dosimetry. The strong points and disadvantages of GATE in comparison to other dosimetry specific codes are discussed and illustrated in terms of accuracy, efficiency and flexibility. A number of features, such as the use of voxelised and moving sources, as well as developments such as advanced visualization tools and the development of dose estimation maps allowing GATE to be used for dosimetry applications are presented. In addition, different examples from dosimetry applications with GATE are given. Finally, future directions with respect to the use of GATE for dosimetry applications are outlined.

Sliding-gate valve for use with abrasive materials

Science.gov (United States)

Ayers, Jr., William J.; Carter, Charles R.; Griffith, Richard A.; Loomis, Richard B.; Notestein, John E.

1985-01-01

The invention is a flow and pressure-sealing valve for use with abrasive solids. The valve embodies special features which provide for long, reliable operating lifetimes in solids-handling service. The valve includes upper and lower transversely slidable gates, contained in separate chambers. The upper gate provides a solids-flow control function, whereas the lower gate provides a pressure-sealing function. The lower gate is supported by means for (a) lifting that gate into sealing engagement with its seat when the gate is in its open and closed positions and (b) lowering the gate out of contact with its seat to permit abrasion-free transit of the gate between its open and closed positions. When closed, the upper gate isolates the lower gate from the solids. Because of this shielding action, the sealing surface of the lower gate is not exposed to solids during transit or when it is being lifted or lowered. The chamber containing the lower gate normally is pressurized slightly, and a sweep gas is directed inwardly across the lower-gate sealing surface during the vertical translation of the gate.

Electron transport in a double quantum ring: Evidence of an AND gate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maiti, Santanu K.

2009-01-01

We explore AND gate response in a double quantum ring where each ring is threaded by a magnetic flux φ. The double quantum ring is attached symmetrically to two semi-infinite one-dimensional metallic electrodes and two gate voltages, namely, V a and V b , are applied, respectively, in the lower arms of the two rings which are treated as two inputs of the AND gate. The system is described in the tight-binding framework and the calculations are done using the Green's function formalism. Here we numerically compute the conductance-energy and current-voltage characteristics as functions of the ring-to-electrode coupling strengths, magnetic flux and gate voltages. Our study suggests that, for a typical value of the magnetic flux φ=φ 0 /2 (φ 0 =ch/e, the elementary flux-quantum) a high output current (1) (in the logical sense) appears only if both the two inputs to the gate are high (1), while if neither or only one input to the gate is high (1), a low output current (0) results. It clearly demonstrates the AND gate behavior and this aspect may be utilized in designing an electronic logic gate.

Video-coaching as biofeedback tool to improve gated treatments. Possibilities and limitations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cossmann, Peter H.

2012-01-01

For respiratory gated radiotherapy the manufacturers of linear accelerators offer dedicated gating technologies. The video-based Varian RPM Gating system (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto/CA, USA) includes in a standard configuration a support tool for regular breathing called audiocoaching. As this approach has limitations regarding direct control of the patient's breathing due to a missing feedback, we designed an additional tool offering videocoaching. In order to evaluate the impact of this additional functionality, we measured parameters defining the image quality of 4D-CT data as well as the treatment duration which is mainly influenced by the patient's limited ability to achieve a stable breathing pattern. (orig.)

Implementation of quantum logic gates via Stark-tuned Förster resonance in Rydberg atoms

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Xi-Rong; Hu, Chang-Sheng; Shen, Li-Tuo; Yang, Zhen-Biao; Wu, Huai-Zhi

2018-02-01

We present a scheme for implementation of controlled-Z and controlled-NOT gates via rapid adiabatic passage and Stark-tuned Förster resonance. By sweeping the Förster resonance once without passing through it and adiabatically tuning the angle-dependent Rydberg-Rydberg interaction of the dipolar nature, the system can be effectively described by a two-level system with the adiabatic theorem. The single adiabatic passage leads to a gate fidelity as high as 0.999 and a greatly reduced gate operation time. We investigate the scheme by considering an actual atomic level configuration with rubidium atoms, where the fidelity of the controlled-Z gate is still higher than 0.99 under the influence of the Zeeman effect.

Photon-gated spin transistor

OpenAIRE

Li, Fan; Song, Cheng; Cui, Bin; Peng, Jingjing; Gu, Youdi; Wang, Guangyue; Pan, Feng

2017-01-01

Spin-polarized field-effect transistor (spin-FET), where a dielectric layer is generally employed for the electrical gating as the traditional FET, stands out as a seminal spintronic device under the miniaturization trend of electronics. It would be fundamentally transformative if optical gating was used for spin-FET. We report a new type of spin-polarized field-effect transistor (spin-FET) with optical gating, which is fabricated by partial exposure of the (La,Sr)MnO3 channel to light-emitti...

Scientific profile and professional responsibility of Court-appointed Medical Technical Consultants in Italy: time for a specific educational curriculum?

Science.gov (United States)

Conti, Andrea Alberto

2014-08-20

Court-appointed Technical Consultants (CTCs) are fundamental figures in the Italian judicial system. CTCs are experts appointed by judges in order to supplement their activities by ascertaining, collecting and analyzing facts concerning the specific subject of a lawsuit. These experts formulate opinions, gather motivations and perform checks to provide clear, objective and irrefutable answers to the questions posed by judges. With direct reference to the medical field, while police doctors (specialists in forensic medicine) follow an academic, dedicated, well-structured educational curriculum, the University specialty school in Forensic Medicine, other medical CTCs, though not infrequently luminaries with one or many medical specialties and professional acknowledgments, may have no specific legal-medicine and juridical expertise, precisely because a similar expertise is not formally required of them. In the light of these considerations, in Italy some professionals of the legal world, and of the health context too, have proposed for medical CTCs targeted educational pathways, which would provide these experts with formal specific qualifications. In synthesis and in conclusion, a full knowledge and a rigorous respect of the rules of legal proceedings emerge as increasingly important characteristics for current and future Court-appointed Technical Consultants, together with a specific educational curriculum.

On photonic controlled phase gates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kieling, K; Eisert, J; O'Brien, J L

2010-01-01

As primitives for entanglement generation, controlled phase gates have a central role in quantum computing. Especially in ideas realizing instances of quantum computation in linear optical gate arrays, a closer look can be rewarding. In such architectures, all effective nonlinearities are induced by measurements. Hence the probability of success is a crucial parameter of such quantum gates. In this paper, we discuss this question for controlled phase gates that implement an arbitrary phase with one and two control qubits. Within the class of post-selected gates in dual-rail encoding with vacuum ancillas, we identify the optimal success probabilities. We construct networks that allow for implementation using current experimental capabilities in detail. The methods employed here appear specifically useful with the advent of integrated linear optical circuits, providing stable interferometers on monolithic structures.

Reversible logic gates on Physarum Polycephalum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schumann, Andrew

2015-01-01

In this paper, we consider possibilities how to implement asynchronous sequential logic gates and quantum-style reversible logic gates on Physarum polycephalum motions. We show that in asynchronous sequential logic gates we can erase information because of uncertainty in the direction of plasmodium propagation. Therefore quantum-style reversible logic gates are more preferable for designing logic circuits on Physarum polycephalum

Impact of sea level rise on tide gate function.

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Sean; Miskewitz, Robert

2013-01-01

Sea level rise resulting from climate change and land subsidence is expected to severely impact the duration and associated damage resulting from flooding events in tidal communities. These communities must continuously invest resources for the maintenance of existing structures and installation of new flood prevention infrastructure. Tide gates are a common flood prevention structure for low-lying communities in the tidal zone. Tide gates close during incoming tides to prevent inundation from downstream water propagating inland and open during outgoing tides to drain upland areas. Higher downstream mean sea level elevations reduce the effectiveness of tide gates by impacting the hydraulics of the system. This project developed a HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS model of an existing tide gate structure and its upland drainage area in the New Jersey Meadowlands to simulate the impact of rising mean sea level elevations on the tide gate's ability to prevent upstream flooding. Model predictions indicate that sea level rise will reduce the tide gate effectiveness resulting in longer lasting and deeper flood events. The results indicate that there is a critical point in the sea level elevation for this local area, beyond which flooding scenarios become dramatically worse and would have a significantly negative impact on the standard of living and ability to do business in one of the most densely populated areas of America.

Significant Factors Related to Failed Pediatric Dental General Anesthesia Appointments at a Hospital-based Residency Program.

Science.gov (United States)

Emhardt, John R; Yepes, Juan F; Vinson, LaQuia A; Jones, James E; Emhardt, John D; Kozlowski, Diana C; Eckert, George J; Maupome, Gerardo

2017-05-15

The purposes of this study were to: (1) evaluate the relationship between appointment failure and the factors of age, gender, race, insurance type, day of week, scheduled time of surgery, distance traveled, and weather; (2) investigate reasons for failure; and (3) explore the relationships between the factors and reasons for failure. Electronic medical records were accessed to obtain data for patients scheduled for dental care under general anesthesia from May 2012 to May 2015. Factors were analyzed for relation to appointment failure. Data from 3,513 appointments for 2,874 children were analyzed. Bivariate associations showed statistically significant (Pgeneral anesthesia face specific barriers to care.

SWNT array resonant gate MOS transistor.

Science.gov (United States)

Arun, A; Campidelli, S; Filoramo, A; Derycke, V; Salet, P; Ionescu, A M; Goffman, M F

2011-02-04

We show that thin horizontal arrays of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) suspended above the channel of silicon MOSFETs can be used as vibrating gate electrodes. This new class of nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) combines the unique mechanical and electronic properties of SWNTs with an integrated silicon-based motion detection. Its electrical response exhibits a clear signature of the mechanical resonance of SWNT arrays (120-150 MHz) showing that these thin horizontal arrays behave as a cohesive, rigid and elastic body membrane with a Young's modulus in the order of 1-10 GPa and ultra-low mass. The resonant frequency can be tuned by the gate voltage and its dependence is well understood within the continuum mechanics framework.

SWNT array resonant gate MOS transistor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arun, A; Salet, P; Ionescu, A M; Campidelli, S; Filoramo, A; Derycke, V; Goffman, M F

2011-01-01

We show that thin horizontal arrays of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) suspended above the channel of silicon MOSFETs can be used as vibrating gate electrodes. This new class of nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) combines the unique mechanical and electronic properties of SWNTs with an integrated silicon-based motion detection. Its electrical response exhibits a clear signature of the mechanical resonance of SWNT arrays (120-150 MHz) showing that these thin horizontal arrays behave as a cohesive, rigid and elastic body membrane with a Young's modulus in the order of 1-10 GPa and ultra-low mass. The resonant frequency can be tuned by the gate voltage and its dependence is well understood within the continuum mechanics framework.

Local gate control in carbon nanotube quantum devices

Science.gov (United States)

Biercuk, Michael Jordan

This thesis presents transport measurements of carbon nanotube electronic devices operated in the quantum regime. Nanotubes are contacted by source and drain electrodes, and multiple lithographically-patterned electrostatic gates are aligned to each device. Transport measurements of device conductance or current as a function of local gate voltages reveal that local gates couple primarily to the proximal section of the nanotube, hence providing spatially localized control over carrier density along the nanotube length. Further, using several different techniques we are able to produce local depletion regions along the length of a tube. This phenomenon is explored in detail for different contact metals to the nanotube. We utilize local gating techniques to study multiple quantum dots in carbon nanotubes produced both by naturally occurring defects, and by the controlled application of voltages to depletion gates. We study double quantum dots in detail, where transport measurements reveal honeycomb charge stability diagrams. We extract values of energy-level spacings, capacitances, and interaction energies for this system, and demonstrate independent control over all relevant tunneling rates. We report rf-reflectometry measurements of gate-defined carbon nanotube quantum dots with integrated charge sensors. Aluminum rf-SETs are electrostatically coupled to carbon nanotube devices and detect single electron charging phenomena in the Coulomb blockade regime. Simultaneous correlated measurements of single electron charging are made using reflected rf power from the nanotube itself and from the rf-SET on microsecond time scales. We map charge stability diagrams for the nanotube quantum dot via charge sensing, observing Coulomb charging diamonds beyond the first order. Conductance measurements of carbon nanotubes containing gated local depletion regions exhibit plateaus as a function of gate voltage, spaced by approximately 1e2/h, the quantum of conductance for a single

Assessment of a quantum phase-gate operation based on nonlinear optics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rebic, S.; Ottaviani, C.; Di Giuseppe, G.; Vitali, D.; Tombesi, P.

2006-01-01

We analyze in detail the proposal for a two-qubit gate for travelling single-photon qubits recently presented by Ottaviani et al. [Phys. Rev. A 73, 010301(R) (2006)]. The scheme is based on an ensemble of five-level atoms coupled to two quantum and two classical light fields. The two quantum fields undergo cross-phase modulation induced by electromagnetically induced transparency. The performance of this two-qubit quantum phase gate for travelling single-photon qubits is thoroughly examined in the steady-state and transient regimes, by means of a full quantum treatment of the system dynamics. In the steady-state regime, we find a general trade-off between the size of the conditional phase shift and the fidelity of the gate operation. However, this trade-off can be bypassed in the transient regime, where a satisfactory gate operation is found to be possible, significantly reducing the gate operation time

5 CFR 315.603 - Appointment based on former incumbency of a position brought into the competitive service.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS CAREER AND CAREER-CONDITIONAL EMPLOYMENT Career or Career-Conditional Appointment Under Special Authorities § 315.603 Appointment based on former... type of case from this requirement. (b) Review of disapproved recommendations. Agencies shall establish...

Stanford, Duke, Rice,... and Gates?

Science.gov (United States)

Carey, Kevin

2009-01-01

This article presents an open letter to Bill Gates. In his letter, the author suggests that Bill Gates should build a brand-new university, a great 21st-century institution of higher learning. This university will be unlike anything the world has ever seen. He asks Bill Gates not to stop helping existing colleges create the higher-education system…

Liquid gating elastomeric porous system with dynamically controllable gas/liquid transport.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheng, Zhizhi; Wang, Honglong; Tang, Yongliang; Wang, Miao; Huang, Lizhi; Min, Lingli; Meng, Haiqiang; Chen, Songyue; Jiang, Lei; Hou, Xu

2018-02-01

The development of membrane technology is central to fields ranging from resource harvesting to medicine, but the existing designs are unable to handle the complex sorting of multiphase substances required for many systems. Especially, the dynamic multiphase transport and separation under a steady-state applied pressure have great benefits for membrane science, but have not been realized at present. Moreover, the incorporation of precisely dynamic control with avoidance of contamination of membranes remains elusive. We show a versatile strategy for creating elastomeric microporous membrane-based systems that can finely control and dynamically modulate the sorting of a wide range of gases and liquids under a steady-state applied pressure, nearly eliminate fouling, and can be easily applied over many size scales, pressures, and environments. Experiments and theoretical calculation demonstrate the stability of our system and the tunability of the critical pressure. Dynamic transport of gas and liquid can be achieved through our gating interfacial design and the controllable pores' deformation without changing the applied pressure. Therefore, we believe that this system will bring new opportunities for many applications, such as gas-involved chemical reactions, fuel cells, multiphase separation, multiphase flow, multiphase microreactors, colloidal particle synthesis, and sizing nano/microparticles.

Benchmarking gate-based quantum computers

Science.gov (United States)

Michielsen, Kristel; Nocon, Madita; Willsch, Dennis; Jin, Fengping; Lippert, Thomas; De Raedt, Hans

2017-11-01

With the advent of public access to small gate-based quantum processors, it becomes necessary to develop a benchmarking methodology such that independent researchers can validate the operation of these processors. We explore the usefulness of a number of simple quantum circuits as benchmarks for gate-based quantum computing devices and show that circuits performing identity operations are very simple, scalable and sensitive to gate errors and are therefore very well suited for this task. We illustrate the procedure by presenting benchmark results for the IBM Quantum Experience, a cloud-based platform for gate-based quantum computing.

Examination of geometric and dosimetric accuracies of gated step-and-shoot intensity modulated radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wiersma, R. D.; Xing, L.

2007-01-01

Due to the complicated technical nature of gated radiation therapy, electronic and mechanical limitations may affect the precision of delivery. The purpose of this study is to investigate the geometric and dosimetric accuracies of gated step-and-shoot intensity modulated radiation treatments (SS-IMRT). Unique segmental MLC plans are designed, which allow quantitative testing of the gating process. Both ungated and gated deliveries are investigated for different dose sizes, dose rates, and gating window times using a commercial treatment system (Varian Trilogy) together with a respiratory gating system [Varian Real-Time Position Management system]. Radiographic film measurements are used to study the geometric accuracy, where it is found that with both ungated and gated SS-IMRT deliveries the MLC leaf divergence away from planned is less than or equal to the MLC specified leaf tolerance value for all leafs (leaf tolerance being settable from 0.5-5 mm). Nevertheless, due to the MLC controller design, failure to define a specific leaf tolerance value suitable to the SS-IMRT plan can lead to undesired geometric effects, such as leaf motion of up to the maximum 5 mm leaf tolerance value occurring after the beam is turned on. In this case, gating may be advantageous over the ungated case, as it allows more time for the MLC to reach the intended leaf configuration. The dosimetric precision of gated SS-IMRT is investigated using ionization chamber methods. Compared with the ungated case, it is found that gating generally leads to increased dosimetric errors due to the interruption of the ''overshoot phenomena.'' With gating the average timing deviation for intermediate segments is found to be 27 ms, compared to 18 ms for the ungated case. For a plan delivered at 600 MU/min this would correspond to an average segment dose error of ∼0.27 MU and ∼0.18 MU for gated and ungated deliveries, respectively. The maximum dosimetric errors for individual intermediate segments are

Joint Optimization of Preventive Maintenance and Spare Parts Inventory with Appointment Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Cai

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Under the background of the wide application of condition-based maintenance (CBM in maintenance practice, the joint optimization of maintenance and spare parts inventory is becoming a hot research to take full advantage of CBM and reduce the operational cost. In order to avoid both the high inventory level and the shortage of spare parts, an appointment policy of spare parts is first proposed based on the prediction of remaining useful lifetime, and then a corresponding joint optimization model of preventive maintenance and spare parts inventory is established. Due to the complexity of the model, the combination method of genetic algorithm and Monte Carlo is presented to get the optimal maximum inventory level, safety inventory level, potential failure threshold, and appointment threshold to minimize the cost rate. Finally, the proposed model is studied through a case study and compared with both the separate optimization and the joint optimization without appointment policy, and the results show that the proposed model is more effective. In addition, the sensitivity analysis shows that the proposed model is consistent with the actual situation of maintenance practices and inventory management.

A single nano cantilever as a reprogrammable universal logic gate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chappanda, K N; Ilyas, S; Kazmi, S N R; Younis, M I; Holguin-Lerma, J; Batra, N M; Costa, P M F J

2017-01-01

The current transistor-based computing circuits use multiple interconnected transistors to realize a single Boolean logic gate. This leads to higher power requirements and delayed computing. Transistors are not suitable for applications in harsh environments and require complicated thermal management systems due to excessive heat dissipation. Also, transistor circuits lack the ability to dynamically reconfigure their functionality in real time, which is desirable for enhanced computing capability. Further, the miniaturization of transistors to improve computational power is reaching its ultimate physical limits. As a step towards overcoming the limitations of transistor-based computing, here we demonstrate a reprogrammable universal Boolean logic gate based on a nanoelectromechanical cantilever (NC) oscillator. The fundamental XOR, AND, NOR, OR and NOT logic gates are condensed in a single NC, thereby reducing electrical interconnects between devices. The device is dynamically switchable between any logic gates at the same drive frequency without the need for any change in the circuit. It is demonstrated to operate at elevated temperatures minimizing the need for thermal management systems. It has a tunable bandwidth of 5 MHz enabling parallel and dynamically reconfigurable logic device for enhanced computing. (paper)

A single nano cantilever as a reprogrammable universal logic gate

KAUST Repository

Chappanda, K. N.

2017-02-24

The current transistor-based computing circuits use multiple interconnected transistors to realize a single Boolean logic gate. This leads to higher power requirements and delayed computing. Transistors are not suitable for applications in harsh environments and require complicated thermal management systems due to excessive heat dissipation. Also, transistor circuits lack the ability to dynamically reconfigure their functionality in real time, which is desirable for enhanced computing capability. Further, the miniaturization of transistors to improve computational power is reaching its ultimate physical limits. As a step towards overcoming the limitations of transistor-based computing, here we demonstrate a reprogrammable universal Boolean logic gate based on a nanoelectromechanical cantilever (NC) oscillator. The fundamental XOR, AND, NOR, OR and NOT logic gates are condensed in a single NC, thereby reducing electrical interconnects between devices. The device is dynamically switchable between any logic gates at the same drive frequency without the need for any change in the circuit. It is demonstrated to operate at elevated temperatures minimizing the need for thermal management systems. It has a tunable bandwidth of 5 MHz enabling parallel and dynamically reconfigurable logic device for enhanced computing.

Effective dark count rate reduction by modified SPAD gating circuit

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Prochazka, Ivan; Blazej, Josef, E-mail: blazej@fjfi.cvut.cz; Kodet, Jan

2015-07-01

For our main application of single photon counting avalanche detectors in focus – laser ranging of space objects and laser time transfer – the ultimate requirements are relatively large and homogeneous active area having a diameter of 100 to 200 µm and a sub-picosecond stability of timing. The detector dark count rate and after-pulsing probability are parameters of relatively lower, but not negligible importance. In presented paper we will focused on them. We have developed a new active quenching and gating scheme which can reduce afterpulsing effect and hence also effective dark count rate at lower temperature. In satellite laser ranging system the effective dark count rate was reduced more than 35 times. This improvement will contribute in increasing the data yield and hence to increase precision and productivity. - Highlights: • Signal and quenching path in a control circuit stayed unaffected by gating. • The detector package optimized for laser time transfer systems is considered. • After-pulsing effect is reduced by a modification of the use of gate signal. • The dark count rate is reduced for gate rates of the order of units of kHz.

Quantitative analysis of a fault tree with priority AND gates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuge, T.; Yanagi, S.

2008-01-01

A method for calculating the exact top event probability of a fault tree with priority AND gates and repeated basic events is proposed when the minimal cut sets are given. A priority AND gate is an AND gate where the input events must occur in a prescribed order for the occurrence of the output event. It is known that the top event probability of such a dynamic fault tree is obtained by converting the tree into an equivalent Markov model. However, this method is not realistic for a complex system model because the number of states which should be considered in the Markov analysis increases explosively as the number of basic events increases. To overcome the shortcomings of the Markov model, we propose an alternative method to obtain the top event probability in this paper. We assume that the basic events occur independently, exponentially distributed, and the component whose failure corresponds to the occurrence of the basic event is non-repairable. First, we obtain the probability of occurrence of the output event of a single priority AND gate by Markov analysis. Then, the top event probability is given by a cut set approach and the inclusion-exclusion formula. An efficient procedure to obtain the probabilities corresponding to logical products in the inclusion-exclusion formula is proposed. The logical product which is composed of two or more priority AND gates having at least one common basic event as their inputs is transformed into the sum of disjoint events which are equivalent to a priority AND gate in the procedure. Numerical examples show that our method works well for complex systems

Cell-to-Cell Communication Circuits: Quantitative Analysis of Synthetic Logic Gates

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman-Sommer, Marta; Supady, Adriana; Klipp, Edda

2012-01-01

One of the goals in the field of synthetic biology is the construction of cellular computation devices that could function in a manner similar to electronic circuits. To this end, attempts are made to create biological systems that function as logic gates. In this work we present a theoretical quantitative analysis of a synthetic cellular logic-gates system, which has been implemented in cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Regot et al., 2011). It exploits endogenous MAP kinase signaling pathways. The novelty of the system lies in the compartmentalization of the circuit where all basic logic gates are implemented in independent single cells that can then be cultured together to perform complex logic functions. We have constructed kinetic models of the multicellular IDENTITY, NOT, OR, and IMPLIES logic gates, using both deterministic and stochastic frameworks. All necessary model parameters are taken from literature or estimated based on published kinetic data, in such a way that the resulting models correctly capture important dynamic features of the included mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. We analyze the models in terms of parameter sensitivity and we discuss possible ways of optimizing the system, e.g., by tuning the culture density. We apply a stochastic modeling approach, which simulates the behavior of whole populations of cells and allows us to investigate the noise generated in the system; we find that the gene expression units are the major sources of noise. Finally, the model is used for the design of system modifications: we show how the current system could be transformed to operate on three discrete values. PMID:22934039

Sidewall gated double well quasi-one-dimensional resonant tunneling transistors

Science.gov (United States)

Kolagunta, V. R.; Janes, D. B.; Melloch, M. R.; Youtsey, C.

1997-12-01

We present gating characteristics of submicron vertical resonant tunneling transistors in double quantum well heterostructures. Current-voltage characteristics at room temperature and 77 K for devices with minimum feature widths of 0.9 and 0.7 μm are presented and discussed. The evolution of the I-V characteristics with increasing negative gate biases is related to the change in the lateral confinement, with a transition from a large area 2D to a quasi-1D. Even gating of multiple wells and lateral confinement effects observable at 77 K make these devices ideally suited for applications in multi-valued logic systems and low-dimensional structures.

Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels: Evolutionary History and Distinctive Sequence Features.

Science.gov (United States)

Kasimova, M A; Granata, D; Carnevale, V

2016-01-01

Voltage-gated sodium channels (Nav) are responsible for the rising phase of the action potential. Their role in electrical signal transmission is so relevant that their emergence is believed to be one of the crucial factors enabling development of nervous system. The presence of voltage-gated sodium-selective channels in bacteria (BacNav) has raised questions concerning the evolutionary history of the ones in animals. Here we review some of the milestones in the field of Nav phylogenetic analysis and discuss some of the most important sequence features that distinguish these channels from voltage-gated potassium channels and transient receptor potential channels. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gate Engineering in SOI LDMOS for Device Reliability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aanand

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A linearly graded doping drift region with step gate structure, used for improvement of reduced surface field (RESURF SOI LDMOS transistor performance has been simulated with 0.35µm technology in this paper. The proposed device has one poly gate and double metal gate arranged in a stepped manner, from channel to drift region. The first gate uses n+ poly (near source where as other two gates of aluminium. The first gate with thin gate oxide has good control over the channel charge. The third gate with thick gate oxide at drift region reduce gate to drain capacitance. The arrangement of second and third gates in a stepped manner in drift region spreads the electric field uniformly. Using two dimensional device simulations, the proposed SOI LDMOS is compared with conventional structure and the extended metal structure. We demonstrate that the proposed device exhibits significant enhancement in linearity, breakdown voltage, on-resistance and HCI. Double metal gate reduces the impact ionization area which helps to improve the Hot Carrier Injection effect..

Video-coaching as biofeedback tool to improve gated treatments. Possibilities and limitations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cossmann, Peter H. [Medtech Consulting Cossmann, Wettingen (Switzerland); Private Univ. im Fuerstentum Liechtenstein, Triesen (Liechtenstein)

2012-11-01

For respiratory gated radiotherapy the manufacturers of linear accelerators offer dedicated gating technologies. The video-based Varian RPM Gating system (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto/CA, USA) includes in a standard configuration a support tool for regular breathing called audiocoaching. As this approach has limitations regarding direct control of the patient's breathing due to a missing feedback, we designed an additional tool offering videocoaching. In order to evaluate the impact of this additional functionality, we measured parameters defining the image quality of 4D-CT data as well as the treatment duration which is mainly influenced by the patient's limited ability to achieve a stable breathing pattern. (orig.)

Electroresistance effect in gold thin film induced by ionic-liquid-gated electric double layer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakayama, Hiroyasu; Ohtani, Takashi; Fujikawa, Yasunori; Ando, Kazuya; Saitoh, Eiji; Ye, Jianting; Iwasa, Yoshihiro

2012-01-01

Electroresistance effect was detected in a metallic thin film using ionic-liquid-gated electric-double-layer transistors (EDLTs). We observed reversible modulation of the electric resistance of a Au thin film. In this system, we found that an electric double layer works as a nanogap capacitor with 27 (-25) MV cm -1 of electric field by applying only 1.7 V of positive (negative) gate voltage. The experimental results indicate that the ionic-liquid-gated EDLT technique can be used for controlling the surface electronic states on metallic systems. (author)

Predictors of Missed Research Appointments in a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stéphanie J.E. Becker

2014-09-01

 Younger patients with no college education, who believe their health can be controlled, are more likely to miss a research appointment when enrolled in a randomized placebo injection-controlled trial. 

Effect of top gate potential on bias-stress for dual gate amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide thin film transistor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chun, Minkyu; Um, Jae Gwang; Park, Min Sang; Chowdhury, Md Delwar Hossain; Jang, Jin, E-mail: jjang@khu.ac.kr [Advanced Display Research Center and Department of Information Display, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447 (Korea, Republic of)

2016-07-15

We report the abnormal behavior of the threshold voltage (V{sub TH}) shift under positive bias Temperature stress (PBTS) and negative bias temperature stress (NBTS) at top/bottom gate in dual gate amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). It is found that the PBTS at top gate shows negative transfer shift and NBTS shows positive transfer shift for both top and bottom gate sweep. The shift of bottom/top gate sweep is dominated by top gate bias (V{sub TG}), while bottom gate bias (V{sub BG}) is less effect than V{sub TG}. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth profile provides the evidence of In metal diffusion to the top SiO{sub 2}/a-IGZO and also the existence of large amount of In{sup +} under positive top gate bias around top interfaces, thus negative transfer shift is observed. On the other hand, the formation of OH{sup −} at top interfaces under the stress of negative top gate bias shows negative transfer shift. The domination of V{sub TG} both on bottom/top gate sweep after PBTS/NBTS is obviously occurred due to thin active layer.

CMOS gate array characterization procedures

Science.gov (United States)

Spratt, James P.

1993-09-01

Present procedures are inadequate for characterizing the radiation hardness of gate array product lines prior to personalization because the selection of circuits to be used, from among all those available in the manufacturer's circuit library, is usually uncontrolled. (Some circuits are fundamentally more radiation resistant than others.) In such cases, differences in hardness can result between different designs of the same logic function. Hardness also varies because many gate arrays feature large custom-designed megacells (e.g., microprocessors and random access memories-MicroP's and RAM's). As a result, different product lines cannot be compared equally. A characterization strategy is needed, along with standardized test vehicle(s), methodology, and conditions, so that users can make informed judgments on which gate arrays are best suited for their needs. The program described developed preferred procedures for the radiation characterization of gate arrays, including a gate array evaluation test vehicle, featuring a canary circuit, designed to define the speed versus hardness envelope of the gate array. A multiplier was chosen for this role, and a baseline multiplier architecture is suggested that could be incorporated into an existing standard evaluation circuit chip.

Comparison between retrospective gating and ECG triggering in magnetic resonance velocity mapping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søndergaard, L; Ståhlberg, F; Thomsen, C

1993-01-01

ECG-triggered cinematographic studies of the cardiovascular system are hampered by several technical restrictions such as the inability to image end-diastole, ghosting, varying signal intensity, and phase contributions from eddy currents. Retrospective gating may solve these problems, but involves...... of flow pulses. However, by reducing the time window retrospectively gated flow measurements were in good agreement with those that are ECG triggered. When fulfilling the demand of a narrow time window for interpolation, retrospective gating offers several advantages in MR velocity mapping....

GATE: Improving the computational efficiency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Staelens, S.; De Beenhouwer, J.; Kruecker, D.; Maigne, L.; Rannou, F.; Ferrer, L.; D'Asseler, Y.; Buvat, I.; Lemahieu, I.

2006-01-01

GATE is a software dedicated to Monte Carlo simulations in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET). An important disadvantage of those simulations is the fundamental burden of computation time. This manuscript describes three different techniques in order to improve the efficiency of those simulations. Firstly, the implementation of variance reduction techniques (VRTs), more specifically the incorporation of geometrical importance sampling, is discussed. After this, the newly designed cluster version of the GATE software is described. The experiments have shown that GATE simulations scale very well on a cluster of homogeneous computers. Finally, an elaboration on the deployment of GATE on the Enabling Grids for E-Science in Europe (EGEE) grid will conclude the description of efficiency enhancement efforts. The three aforementioned methods improve the efficiency of GATE to a large extent and make realistic patient-specific overnight Monte Carlo simulations achievable

Dual-gated cardiac PET-clinical feasibility study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Teraes, Mika; Kokki, Tommi; Noponen, Tommi; Hoppela, Erika; Sipilae, Hannu T.; Knuuti, Juhani [Turku PET Centre, PO BOX 52, Turku (Finland); Durand-Schaefer, Nicolas [General Electric Medical Systems, Buc (France); Pietilae, Mikko [Turku University Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine, Turku (Finland); Kiss, Jan [Turku University Hospital, Department of Surgery, Turku (Finland)

2010-03-15

Both respiratory and cardiac motions reduce image quality in myocardial imaging. For accurate imaging of small structures such as vulnerable coronary plaques, simultaneous cardiac and respiratory gating is warranted. This study tests the feasibility of a recently developed robust method for cardiac-respiratory gating. List-mode data with triggers from respiratory and cardiac cycles are rearranged into dual-gated segments and reconstructed with standard algorithms of a commercial PET/CT scanner. Cardiac gates were defined as three fixed phases and one variable diastolic phase. Chest motion was measured with a respiratory gating device and post-processed to determine gates. Preservation of quantification in dual-gated images was tested with an IEC whole-body phantom. Minipig and human studies were performed to evaluate the feasibility of the method. In minipig studies, a coronary catheter with radioactive tip was guided in coronary artery for in vivo and ex vivo acquisitions. Dual gating in humans with suspected cardiac disorders was performed using 18-F-FDG as a tracer. The method was found feasible for in vivo imaging and the radioactive catheter tip was better resolved in gated images. In human studies, the dual gating was found feasible and easy for clinical routine. Maximal movement of myocardial surface in cranio-caudal direction was over 20 mm. The shape of myocardium was clearly different between the gates and papillary muscles become more visible in diastolic images. The first clinical experiences using robust cardiac-respiratory dual gating are encouraging. Further testing in larger clinical populations using tracers designed especially for plaque imaging is warranted. (orig.)

Dual-gated cardiac PET-clinical feasibility study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teraes, Mika; Kokki, Tommi; Noponen, Tommi; Hoppela, Erika; Sipilae, Hannu T.; Knuuti, Juhani; Durand-Schaefer, Nicolas; Pietilae, Mikko; Kiss, Jan

2010-01-01

Both respiratory and cardiac motions reduce image quality in myocardial imaging. For accurate imaging of small structures such as vulnerable coronary plaques, simultaneous cardiac and respiratory gating is warranted. This study tests the feasibility of a recently developed robust method for cardiac-respiratory gating. List-mode data with triggers from respiratory and cardiac cycles are rearranged into dual-gated segments and reconstructed with standard algorithms of a commercial PET/CT scanner. Cardiac gates were defined as three fixed phases and one variable diastolic phase. Chest motion was measured with a respiratory gating device and post-processed to determine gates. Preservation of quantification in dual-gated images was tested with an IEC whole-body phantom. Minipig and human studies were performed to evaluate the feasibility of the method. In minipig studies, a coronary catheter with radioactive tip was guided in coronary artery for in vivo and ex vivo acquisitions. Dual gating in humans with suspected cardiac disorders was performed using 18-F-FDG as a tracer. The method was found feasible for in vivo imaging and the radioactive catheter tip was better resolved in gated images. In human studies, the dual gating was found feasible and easy for clinical routine. Maximal movement of myocardial surface in cranio-caudal direction was over 20 mm. The shape of myocardium was clearly different between the gates and papillary muscles become more visible in diastolic images. The first clinical experiences using robust cardiac-respiratory dual gating are encouraging. Further testing in larger clinical populations using tracers designed especially for plaque imaging is warranted. (orig.)

Investigation of gating parameter, temperature and density effects on mold filling in the lost foam casting (LFC process by direct observation method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Sharifi

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Mold filling sequence of A356 aluminum alloy was investigated with the aid of direct observation method (photography method. The results show that increase of the foam density causes decrease of the filling rate and increase of the filling time. Foam density has more pronounced effect on mold filling rate rather than pouring temperature. Gating design also affects the profile of molten metal advancement in the mold. The results show that the higher filling rate was obtained with G2 gating than with other gating system. Regarding the mold filling pattern, G3 gating system has more effective contact interface than G2 gating system and has lower filling time. Filling time in G4 gating and G1 gating system are nearly the same.

Stock Market Reaction to CEO Appointment – Preliminary Results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarzyna Byrka-Kita

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine shareholders’ reaction to the decision of the supervisory board to appoint a CEO in companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Methodology: An event study and the mean-adjusted model were applied. The abnormal returns were measured as the CAAR in the entire (-60, + 60 window and selected sub-windows. Findings: The obtained values of abnormal returns indicate the shareholder’s negative reaction. Throughout the observation window, they oscillate slightly below zero, and in the window (0, +20 they are negative at -1.566%. Irrespective of the observation window, negative abnormal returns were obtained for over half of the observation (52–57%. Therefore, preliminary results indicate the predominance of the information effect over the real one. The decrease in market value as a result of the event may result from an increase in investors’ uncertainty as to the effects of changes in strategy and skills of the new CEO. Originality: The research is a unique one. To date, no one has carried out research into shareholders’ reaction to a CEO appointment in either the Polish or Central and Eastern European capital markets. They primarily bring the value of cognition of shareholders’ behaviour in the analysed event, which is reflected in share prices. They extend the literature on the signalization instruments, i.e. the activities that boards can undertake due to the new information transmitted to the capital market participants and stakeholders. The market reaction to a CEO appointment will without a doubt interest investors; the institutions responsible for supervision (which in the case of Poland is the Financial Oversight Commission and the legislator in charge of regulations that prevent insider trading while promoting corporate disclosure transparency.

Enzymatic AND logic gates operated under conditions characteristic of biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Melnikov, Dmitriy; Strack, Guinevere; Zhou, Jian; Windmiller, Joshua Ray; Halámek, Jan; Bocharova, Vera; Chuang, Min-Chieh; Santhosh, Padmanabhan; Privman, Vladimir; Wang, Joseph; Katz, Evgeny

2010-09-23

Experimental and theoretical analyses of the lactate dehydrogenase and glutathione reductase based enzymatic AND logic gates in which the enzymes and their substrates serve as logic inputs are performed. These two systems are examples of the novel, previously unexplored class of biochemical logic gates that illustrate potential biomedical applications of biochemical logic. They are characterized by input concentrations at logic 0 and 1 states corresponding to normal and pathophysiological conditions. Our analysis shows that the logic gates under investigation have similar noise characteristics. Both significantly amplify random noise present in inputs; however, we establish that for realistic widths of the input noise distributions, it is still possible to differentiate between the logic 0 and 1 states of the output. This indicates that reliable detection of pathophysiological conditions is indeed possible with such enzyme logic systems.

Demonstration of a Quantum Nondemolition Sum Gate

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yoshikawa, J.; Miwa, Y.; Huck, Alexander

2008-01-01

The sum gate is the canonical two-mode gate for universal quantum computation based on continuous quantum variables. It represents the natural analogue to a qubit C-NOT gate. In addition, the continuous-variable gate describes a quantum nondemolition (QND) interaction between the quadrature...

Gated Detection Measurements of Phosphorescence Lifetimes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yordan Kostov

2004-10-01

Full Text Available A low-cost, gated system for measurements of phosphorescence lifetimes is presented. An extensive description of the system operating principles and metrological characteristics is given. Remarkably, the system operates without optical filtering of the LED excitation source. A description of a practical system is also given and its performance is discussed. Because the device effectively suppresses high-level background fluorescence and scattered light, it is expected to find wide-spread application in bioprocess, environmental and biomedical fields.

Predictors of full-time faculty appointment among MD–PhD program graduates: a national cohort study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorothy A. Andriole

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The authors sought to identify variables associated with MD–PhD program graduates’ academic medicine careers. Methods: We analyzed data for a national cohort of MD–PhD program graduates from 2000 to 2005, using multivariable logistic regression to identify independent predictors of full-time academic medicine faculty appointment through 2013. Results: Of 1,860 MD–PhD program graduates in 2000–2005, we included 1,846 (99.2% who had completed residency training before 2014. Of these 1,846 graduates, 968 (52.4% held full-time faculty appointments. Graduates who attended schools with Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP funding (vs. no MSTP funding; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14–1.74 and participated in ≥1 year of research during residency (vs. no documented research year; aOR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.50–2.28 were more likely to have held full-time faculty appointments. Asian/Pacific Islander (aOR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.60–0.93 and under-represented minority (URM; aOR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.48–0.98 graduates (each vs. white graduates, graduates who reported total debt of ≥$100,000 (vs. no debt at graduation (aOR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.39–0.88, and graduates in surgical practice (aOR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.48–0.84 and other practice (aOR, 0.66, 95% CI, 0.54–0.81 specialties (each vs. ‘medicine, pediatrics, pathology, or neurology’ were less likely to have held full-time faculty appointments. Gender was not independently associated with likelihood of full-time faculty appointment. Conclusions: Over half of all MD–PhD program graduates in our study had full-time faculty appointments. Our findings regarding variables independently associated with full-time faculty appointments can inform the design of strategies to promote academic medicine career choice among MD–PhD program graduates. Further research is warranted to identify other factors amenable to intervention, in addition to those included in

Partial Pressures of Te2 and Thermodynamic Properties of Ga-Te System

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Ching-Hua; Curreri, Peter A. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The partial pressures of Te2 in equilibrium with Ga(1-x)Te(x) samples were measured by optical absorption technique from 450 to 1100 C for compositions, x, between 0.333 and 0.612. To establish the relationship between the partial pressure of Te, and the measured optical absorbance, the calibration runs of a pure Te sample were also conducted to determine the Beer's Law constants. The partial pressures of Te2 in equilibrium with the GaTe(s) and Ga2Te3(s)compounds, or the so-called three-phase curves, were established. These partial pressure data imply the existence of the Ga3Te4(s) compound. From the partial pressures of Te2 over the Ga-Te melts, partial molar enthalpy and entropy of mixing for Te were derived and they agree reasonable well with the published data. The activities of Te in the Ga-Te melts were also derived from the measured partial pressures of Te2. These data agree well with most of the previous results. The possible reason for the high activity of Te measured for x less than 0.60 is discussed.

Respiratory gated beam delivery cannot facilitate margin reduction, unless combined with respiratory correlated image guidance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korreman, Stine S.; Juhler-Nottrup, Trine; Boyer, Arthur L.

2008-01-01

Purpose/objective: In radiotherapy of targets moving with respiration, beam gating is offered as a means of reducing the target motion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safe magnitude of margin reduction for respiratory gated beam delivery. Materials/methods: The study is based on data for 17 lung cancer patients in separate protocols at Rigshospitalet and Stanford Cancer Center. Respiratory curves for external optical markers and implanted fiducials were collected using equipment based on the RPM system (Varian Medical Systems). A total of 861 respiratory curves represented external measurements over 30 fraction treatment courses for 10 patients, and synchronous external/internal measurements in single sessions for seven patients. Variations in respiratory amplitude (simulated coaching) and external/internal phase shifts were simulated by perturbation with realistic values. Variations were described by medians and standard deviations (SDs) of position distributions of the markers. Gating windows (35% duty cycle) were retrospectively applied to the respiratory data for each session, mimicking the use of commercially available gating systems. Medians and SDs of gated data were compared to those of ungated data, to assess potential margin reductions. Results: External respiratory data collected over entire treatment courses showed SDs from 1.6 to 8.1 mm, the major part arising from baseline variations. The gated data had SDs from 1.5 to 7.7 mm, with a mean reduction of 0.3 mm (6%). Gated distributions were more skewed than ungated, and in a few cases a marginal miss of gated respiration would be found even if no margin reduction was applied. Regularization of breathing amplitude to simulate coaching did not alter these results significantly. Simulation of varying phase shifts between internal and external respiratory signals showed that the SDs of gated distributions were the same as for the ungated or smaller, but the median values were markedly shifted

SWNT array resonant gate MOS transistor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arun, A; Salet, P; Ionescu, A M [NanoLab, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne (Switzerland); Campidelli, S; Filoramo, A; Derycke, V; Goffman, M F, E-mail: marcelo.goffman@cea.fr [Laboratoire d' Electronique Moleculaire, SPEC (CNRS URA 2454), IRAMIS, CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

2011-02-04

We show that thin horizontal arrays of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) suspended above the channel of silicon MOSFETs can be used as vibrating gate electrodes. This new class of nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) combines the unique mechanical and electronic properties of SWNTs with an integrated silicon-based motion detection. Its electrical response exhibits a clear signature of the mechanical resonance of SWNT arrays (120-150 MHz) showing that these thin horizontal arrays behave as a cohesive, rigid and elastic body membrane with a Young's modulus in the order of 1-10 GPa and ultra-low mass. The resonant frequency can be tuned by the gate voltage and its dependence is well understood within the continuum mechanics framework.

Scaling Trapped Ion Quantum Computers Using Fast Gates and Microtraps

Science.gov (United States)

Ratcliffe, Alexander K.; Taylor, Richard L.; Hope, Joseph J.; Carvalho, André R. R.

2018-06-01

Most attempts to produce a scalable quantum information processing platform based on ion traps have focused on the shuttling of ions in segmented traps. We show that an architecture based on an array of microtraps with fast gates will outperform architectures based on ion shuttling. This system requires higher power lasers but does not require the manipulation of potentials or shuttling of ions. This improves optical access, reduces the complexity of the trap, and reduces the number of conductive surfaces close to the ions. The use of fast gates also removes limitations on the gate time. Error rates of 10-5 are shown to be possible with 250 mW laser power and a trap separation of 100 μ m . The performance of the gates is shown to be robust to the limitations in the laser repetition rate and the presence of many ions in the trap array.

22 CFR 11.20 - Foreign Service specialist career candidate appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

..., background investigation, and final review process required of career candidates, but normally they will not... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Foreign Service specialist career candidate... SERVICE OFFICERS § 11.20 Foreign Service specialist career candidate appointments. (a) General...

A Grand Challenge for CMOS Scaling: Alternate Gate Dielectrics

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace, Robert M.

2001-03-01

Many materials systems are currently under consideration as potential replacements for SiO2 as the gate dielectric material for sub-0.13 um complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The prospect of replacing SiO2 is a formidable task because the alternate gate dielectric must provide many properties that are, at a minimum, comparable to those of SiO2 yet with a much higher permittivity. A systematic examination of the required performance of gate dielectrics suggests that the key properties to consider in the selection an alternative gate dielectric candidate are (a) permittivity, band gap and band alignment to silicon, (b) thermodynamic stability, (c) film morphology, (d) interface quality, (e) compatibility with the current or expected materials to be used in processing for CMOS devices, (f) process compatibility, and (g) reliability. Many dielectrics appear favorable in some of these areas, but very few materials are promising with respect to all of these guidelines. We will review the performance requirements for materials associated with CMOS scaling, the challenges associated with these requirements, and the state-of-the-art in current research for alternate gate dielectrics. The requirements for process integration compatibility are remarkably demanding, and any serious candidates will emerge only through continued, intensive investigation.

Multi-gated field emitters for a micro-column

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mimura, Hidenori; Kioke, Akifumi; Aoki, Toru; Neo, Yoichiro; Yoshida, Tomoya; Nagao, Masayoshi

2011-01-01

We have developed a multi-gated field emitter (FE) such as a quadruple-gated FE with a three-stacked electrode lens and a quintuple-gated FE with a four-stacked electrode lens. Both the FEs can focus the electron beam. However, the quintuple-gated FE has a stronger electron convergence than the quadruple-gated FE, and a beam crossover is clearly observed for the quintuple-gated FE.

Getting more out of biomedical documents with GATE's full lifecycle open source text analytics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cunningham, Hamish; Tablan, Valentin; Roberts, Angus; Bontcheva, Kalina

2013-01-01

This software article describes the GATE family of open source text analysis tools and processes. GATE is one of the most widely used systems of its type with yearly download rates of tens of thousands and many active users in both academic and industrial contexts. In this paper we report three examples of GATE-based systems operating in the life sciences and in medicine. First, in genome-wide association studies which have contributed to discovery of a head and neck cancer mutation association. Second, medical records analysis which has significantly increased the statistical power of treatment/outcome models in the UK's largest psychiatric patient cohort. Third, richer constructs in drug-related searching. We also explore the ways in which the GATE family supports the various stages of the lifecycle present in our examples. We conclude that the deployment of text mining for document abstraction or rich search and navigation is best thought of as a process, and that with the right computational tools and data collection strategies this process can be made defined and repeatable. The GATE research programme is now 20 years old and has grown from its roots as a specialist development tool for text processing to become a rather comprehensive ecosystem, bringing together software developers, language engineers and research staff from diverse fields. GATE now has a strong claim to cover a uniquely wide range of the lifecycle of text analysis systems. It forms a focal point for the integration and reuse of advances that have been made by many people (the majority outside of the authors' own group) who work in text processing for biomedicine and other areas. GATE is available online under GNU open source licences and runs on all major operating systems. Support is available from an active user and developer community and also on a commercial basis.

Getting more out of biomedical documents with GATE's full lifecycle open source text analytics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamish Cunningham

Full Text Available This software article describes the GATE family of open source text analysis tools and processes. GATE is one of the most widely used systems of its type with yearly download rates of tens of thousands and many active users in both academic and industrial contexts. In this paper we report three examples of GATE-based systems operating in the life sciences and in medicine. First, in genome-wide association studies which have contributed to discovery of a head and neck cancer mutation association. Second, medical records analysis which has significantly increased the statistical power of treatment/outcome models in the UK's largest psychiatric patient cohort. Third, richer constructs in drug-related searching. We also explore the ways in which the GATE family supports the various stages of the lifecycle present in our examples. We conclude that the deployment of text mining for document abstraction or rich search and navigation is best thought of as a process, and that with the right computational tools and data collection strategies this process can be made defined and repeatable. The GATE research programme is now 20 years old and has grown from its roots as a specialist development tool for text processing to become a rather comprehensive ecosystem, bringing together software developers, language engineers and research staff from diverse fields. GATE now has a strong claim to cover a uniquely wide range of the lifecycle of text analysis systems. It forms a focal point for the integration and reuse of advances that have been made by many people (the majority outside of the authors' own group who work in text processing for biomedicine and other areas. GATE is available online under GNU open source licences and runs on all major operating systems. Support is available from an active user and developer community and also on a commercial basis.

76 FR 10945 - San Luis Trust Bank, FSB, San Luis Obispo, CA; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-28

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision San Luis Trust Bank, FSB, San Luis Obispo, CA; Notice of Appointment of Receiver Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the authority... appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for San Luis Trust Bank, FSB, San Luis...

Electric current modulation by gate frequency in a quantum ring nanotransistor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konopka, M.; Bokes, P.

2013-01-01

We presented a computational study of a dynamical gate effect applied to a tight-binding model of a ring-shaped quantum-interference nanotransistor. Compared to our former analysis, we used a model of the gate that not only controls on-site energies of the atoms but can also transfer electrons to or from the device. We have found that the electric current is modulated by the gate frequency also in this more general model. The simulations have been performed using our home-developed generalised stroboscopic wave packet approach which is very suitable for open systems and time-dependent effects. (authors)

General method for realizing the conditional phase-shift gate and a simulation of Grover's algorithm in an ion-trap system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujiwara, Shingo; Hasegawa, Shuichi

2005-01-01

It is well known that, in order to build the universal quantum circuit, one only needs one-qubit rotation gate and two-qubit controlled-NOT gate and until now quantum networks have been built from these gates. However, the minimum components of quantum networks in real experiments are not these quantum gates, so we develop a general method for realizing the conditional phase-shift gate in multiqubit ion-trap quantum computation which has the scalability to N qubits (N≥3). The duration of the laser manipulations for the proposed conditional phase-shift gate is almost the same as that for the controlled-NOT gate in ion-trap quantum computation. Moreover, we simulate Grover's algorithm taking into consideration the real laser fluctuations and analyze the effect of decoherence on the practical search

Chaotic logic gate: A new approach in set and design by genetic algorithm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beyki, Mahmood; Yaghoobi, Mahdi

2015-01-01

How to reconfigure a logic gate is an attractive subject for different applications. Chaotic systems can yield a wide variety of patterns and here we use this feature to produce a logic gate. This feature forms the basis for designing a dynamical computing device that can be rapidly reconfigured to become any wanted logical operator. This logic gate that can reconfigure to any logical operator when placed in its chaotic state is called chaotic logic gate. The reconfiguration realize by setting the parameter values of chaotic logic gate. In this paper we present mechanisms about how to produce a logic gate based on the logistic map in its chaotic state and genetic algorithm is used to set the parameter values. We use three well-known selection methods used in genetic algorithm: tournament selection, Roulette wheel selection and random selection. The results show the tournament selection method is the best method for set the parameter values. Further, genetic algorithm is a powerful tool to set the parameter values of chaotic logic gate

Applications of field-programmable gate arrays in scientific research

CERN Document Server

Sadrozinski, Hartmut F W

2011-01-01

Focusing on resource awareness in field-programmable gate array (FPGA) design, Applications of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays in Scientific Research covers the principle of FPGAs and their functionality. It explores a host of applications, ranging from small one-chip laboratory systems to large-scale applications in ""big science."" The book first describes various FPGA resources, including logic elements, RAM, multipliers, microprocessors, and content-addressable memory. It then presents principles and methods for controlling resources, such as process sequencing, location constraints, and in

A Rout to Protect Quantum Gates constructed via quantum walks from Noises.

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Yi-Mu; Lu, Li-Hua; Li, You-Quan

2018-05-08

The continuous-time quantum walk on a one-dimensional graph of odd number of sites with an on-site potential at the center is studied. We show that such a quantum-walk system can construct an X-gate of a single qubit as well as a control gate for two qubits, when the potential is much larger than the hopping strength. We investigate the decoherence effect and find that the coherence time can be enhanced by either increasing the number of sites on the graph or the ratio of the potential to the hopping strength, which is expected to motivate the design of the quantum gate with long coherence time. We also suggest several experimental proposals to realize such a system.

76 FR 73521 - Statutory Bar to Appointment of Persons Who Fail To Register Under Selective Service Law

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-29

... 3206-AM06 Statutory Bar to Appointment of Persons Who Fail To Register Under Selective Service Law... statutory bar on employment in an Executive agency of an individual who was required to register with the... as follows: Subpart G--Statutory Bar to Appointment of Persons Who Fail To Register Under the...

Evaluation of respiratory movement during gated radiotherapy using film and electronic portal imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ford, E.C.; Mageras, G.S.; Yorke, E.; Rosenzweig, K.E.; Wagman, R.; Ling, C.C.

2002-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a commercial system in reducing respiration-induced treatment uncertainty by gating the radiation delivery. Methods and Materials: The gating system considered here measures respiration from the position of a reflective marker on the patient's chest. Respiration-triggered planning CT scans were obtained for 8 patients (4 lung, 4 liver) at the intended phase of respiration (6 at end expiration and 2 at end inspiration). In addition, fluoroscopic movies were recorded simultaneously with the respiratory waveform. During the treatment sessions, gated localization films were used to measure the position of the diaphragm relative to the vertebral bodies, which was compared to the reference digitally reconstructed radiograph derived from the respiration-triggered planning CT. Variability was quantified by the standard deviation about the mean position. We also assessed the interfraction variability of soft tissue structures during gated treatment in 2 patients using an amorphous silicon electronic portal imaging device. Results: The gated localization films revealed an interfraction patient-averaged diaphragm variability of 2.8±1.0 mm (error bars indicate standard deviation in the patient population). The fluoroscopic data yielded a patient-averaged intrafraction diaphragm variability of 2.6±1.7 mm. With no gating, this intrafraction excursion became 6.9±2.1 mm. In gated localization films, the patient-averaged mean displacement of the diaphragm from the planning position was 0.0±3.9 mm. However, in 4 of the 8 patients, the mean (over localization films) displacement was >4 mm, indicating a systematic displacement in treatment position from the planned one. The position of soft tissue features observed in portal images during gated treatments over several fractions showed a mean variability between 2.6 and 5.7 mm. The intrafraction variability, however, was between 0.6 and 1.4 mm, indicating that most of the variability was

Volumetric measurement of human red blood cells by MOSFET-based microfluidic gate.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Jinhong; Ai, Ye; Cheng, Yuanbing; Li, Chang Ming; Kang, Yuejun; Wang, Zhiming

2015-08-01

In this paper, we present a MOSFET-based (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) microfluidic gate to characterize the translocation of red blood cells (RBCs) through a gate. In the microfluidic system, the bias voltage modulated by the particles or biological cells is connected to the gate of MOSFET. The particles or cells can be detected by monitoring the MOSFET drain current instead of DC/AC-gating method across the electronic gate. Polystyrene particles with various standard sizes are utilized to calibrate the proposed device. Furthermore, RBCs from both adults and newborn blood sample are used to characterize the performance of the device in distinguishing the two types of RBCs. As compared to conventional DC/AC current modulation method, the proposed device demonstrates a higher sensitivity and is capable of being a promising platform for bioassay analysis. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Simulation of 50-nm Gate Graphene Nanoribbon Transistors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cedric Nanmeni Bondja

2016-01-01

Full Text Available An approach to simulate the steady-state and small-signal behavior of GNR MOSFETs (graphene nanoribbon metal-semiconductor-oxide field-effect transistor is presented. GNR material parameters and a method to account for the density of states of one-dimensional systems like GNRs are implemented in a commercial device simulator. This modified tool is used to calculate the current-voltage characteristics as well the cutoff frequency fT and the maximum frequency of oscillation fmax of GNR MOSFETs. Exemplarily, we consider 50-nm gate GNR MOSFETs with N = 7 armchair GNR channels and examine two transistor configurations. The first configuration is a simplified MOSFET structure with a single GNR channel as usually studied by other groups. Furthermore, and for the first time in the literature, we study in detail a transistor structure with multiple parallel GNR channels and interribbon gates. It is shown that the calculated fT of GNR MOSFETs is significantly lower than that of GFETs (FET with gapless large-area graphene channel with comparable gate length due to the mobility degradation in GNRs. On the other hand, GNR MOSFETs show much higher fmax compared to experimental GFETs due the semiconducting nature of the GNR channels and the resulting better saturation of the drain current. Finally, it is shown that the gate control in FETs with multiple parallel GNR channels is improved while the cutoff frequency is degraded compared to single-channel GNR MOSFETs due to parasitic capacitances of the interribbon gates.

The impact of the hydropower system Iron Gates on the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ionita, Veronica

1997-01-01

The paper presents studies on the impact of the hydropower system Iron Gates on the environment, stressing on the anthropic factors influencing the geophysical and biological environment. As anthropic factors we have considered, especially, generation of electric power, causing reduced pollution as compared to the fossil fuelled power generation, low primary energy consumption in the hydroelectric power plants as compared to the fossil fuelled power plants, quality of power and power cost lower than the average cost within Romanian Electricity Authority, RENEL. Local economic effects on forestry, pisciculture, transportation system, etc. are also considered. The socio-economic effects on population dynamics, labour force, agricultural land use, historical and art monuments, tourism and leisure, aesthetics and scenery, protection against natural risks are discussed. The impact on the geophysical environment takes into consideration the erosion of river beds and banks, alluvial deposits transportation, stability of slopes, underwater levels and microclimate changes. The analysis of the impact on the biological environment envisages elements regarding water quality pointing to the sources of pollution, flora and fauna. The work concludes with the procedures undertaken in order to reduce the unfavourable impact of the hydropower system on the environment. (author)