Approximate anlysis of an unreliable $M/M/c$ retrial queue with phase merging algorithm.

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faiza BELARBI

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we investigate an approximate analysis of unreliable $M/M/c$ retrial queue with $c\\geq 3$ in which all servers are subject to breakdowns and repairs. Arriving customers that are unable to access a server due to congestion or failure can choose to enter a retrial orbit for an exponentially distributed amount of time and persistently attempt to gain access to a server, or abandon their request and depart the system. Once a customer is admitted to a service station, they remain there for a random duration until service is complete and then depart the system. However, if the server fails during service, i.e., an active breakdown, the customer may choose to abandon the system or proceed directly to the retrial orbit while the server begins repair immediately. In the unreliable model, there are no exact solutions when the number of servers exceeds one. Therefore, we seek to approximate the steady-state joint distribution of the number of customers in orbit and the status of the $c$ servers for the case of Markovian arrival and service times. Our approach to deriving the approximate steady-state probabilities employs a phase-merging algorithm.

Coal on the shovel. Choice for coal is choosing for expensive, scarce and unreliable

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

Researchers of Peak oil warn about imminent worldwide coal shortages as of 2025. Countries that fully depend on coal import, such as the Netherlands, run great risks due to strongly rising prices and insecurity of supply. How large is the supply of extractable coal? How long will extraction and export continue undisturbed under increasing demand? What effect will this have on the coal price? The real data on supply, demand, price and export mainly tell a tale of unreliable reserves and high prices according to Greenpeace. [mk] [nl

Distributed parameter estimation in unreliable sensor networks via broadcast gossip algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Huiwei; Liao, Xiaofeng; Wang, Zidong; Huang, Tingwen; Chen, Guo

2016-01-01

In this paper, we present an asynchronous algorithm to estimate the unknown parameter under an unreliable network which allows new sensors to join and old sensors to leave, and can tolerate link failures. Each sensor has access to partially informative measurements when it is awakened. In addition, the proposed algorithm can avoid the interference among messages and effectively reduce the accumulated measurement and quantization errors. Based on the theory of stochastic approximation, we prove that our proposed algorithm almost surely converges to the unknown parameter. Finally, we present a numerical example to assess the performance and the communication cost of the algorithm. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

When Reputation Enforces Evolutionary Cooperation in Unreliable MANETs.

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Tang, Changbing; Li, Ang; Li, Xiang

2015-10-01

In self-organized mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), network functions rely on cooperation of self-interested nodes, where a challenge is to enforce their mutual cooperation. In this paper, we study cooperative packet forwarding in a one-hop unreliable channel which results from loss of packets and noisy observation of transmissions. We propose an indirect reciprocity framework based on evolutionary game theory, and enforce cooperation of packet forwarding strategies in both structured and unstructured MANETs. Furthermore, we analyze the evolutionary dynamics of cooperative strategies and derive the threshold of benefit-to-cost ratio to guarantee the convergence of cooperation. The numerical simulations verify that the proposed evolutionary game theoretic solution enforces cooperation when the benefit-to-cost ratio of the altruistic exceeds the critical condition. In addition, the network throughput performance of our proposed strategy in structured MANETs is measured, which is in close agreement with that of the full cooperative strategy.

Unreliable trains and induced rescheduling; implications for cost-benefit analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tseng, Y.; Rietveld, P.; Verhoef, E.T.

2012-01-01

This paper is concerned with the assessment of generalized user cost reductions in the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of transport policies that aim at reducing unreliability. In particular, we investigate the implications of railway passengers' anticipating departure behavior when train services were

An Examination of the Neural Unreliability Thesis of Autism.

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Butler, John S; Molholm, Sophie; Andrade, Gizely N; Foxe, John J

2017-01-01

An emerging neuropathological theory of Autism, referred to here as "the neural unreliability thesis," proposes greater variability in moment-to-moment cortical representation of environmental events, such that the system shows general instability in its impulse response function. Leading evidence for this thesis derives from functional neuroimaging, a methodology ill-suited for detailed assessment of sensory transmission dynamics occurring at the millisecond scale. Electrophysiological assessments of this thesis, however, are sparse and unconvincing. We conducted detailed examination of visual and somatosensory evoked activity using high-density electrical mapping in individuals with autism (N = 20) and precisely matched neurotypical controls (N = 20), recording large numbers of trials that allowed for exhaustive time-frequency analyses at the single-trial level. Measures of intertrial coherence and event-related spectral perturbation revealed no convincing evidence for an unreliability account of sensory responsivity in autism. Indeed, results point to robust, highly reproducible response functions marked for their exceedingly close correspondence to those in neurotypical controls. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

A simple MC-based algorithm for evaluating reliability of stochastic-flow network with unreliable nodes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yeh, W.-C.

2004-01-01

A MP/minimal cutset (MC) is a path/cut set such that if any edge is removed from this path/cut set, then the remaining set is no longer a path/cut set. An intuitive method is proposed to evaluate the reliability in terms of MCs in a stochastic-flow network subject to both edge and node failures under the condition that all of the MCs are given in advance. This is an extension of the best of known algorithms for solving the d-MC (a special MC but formatted in a system-state vector, where d is the lower bound points of the system capacity level) problem from the stochastic-flow network without unreliable nodes to with unreliable nodes by introducing some simple concepts. These concepts were first developed in the literature to implement the proposed algorithm to reduce the number of d-MC candidates. This method is more efficient than the best of known existing algorithms regardless if the network has or does not have unreliable nodes. Two examples are illustrated to show how the reliability is determined using the proposed algorithm in the network with or without unreliable nodes. The computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is analyzed and compared with the existing methods

Unreliability and the Animal Narrator in Richard Adams’s The Plague Dogs

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Anja Höing

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Richard Adams’s talking animal story The Plague Dogs (1978, with its deeply genre-atypical mode of narration, offers a multiplicity of avenues to explore the literary animal as animal. The story draws much of its power from the psychological complexity and related unreliability of both canine narrators, two research lab escapees gone feral. Both the terrier Snitter and the black mongrel Rowf are mentally ill and experience a highly subjective, part-fantastic world. In episodes of zero focalization, a sarcastic voice comments on the plot from the off, aggressively attacking a thoroughly anthropocentric superstructure the protagonists themselves are oblivious of, and presenting all that is normally constructed as “rational” in the implied reader’s world as a carnivalesque farce. Combining these equally unreliable narratives, The Plague Dogs creates a unique mixture of what Phelan (2007 calls “estranging” and “bonding” unreliability and brings to light the devastating consequences of anthropocentrism. The Plague Dogs not only defamiliarizes a genre usually committed to conventional means of storytelling, but the dominant Western conception of the status of animals in the world, showing that once we start to read the animal as animal, this sets into motion an avalanche of other concepts in need of re-reading, among them the very ones making up the fundamental pillars of Western societies’ anthropocentric self-conception.

Developing Reliable Telemedicine Platforms with Unreliable and Limited Communication Bandwidth

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2017-10-01

AFRL-SA-WP-TR-2017-0019 Developing Reliable Telemedicine Platforms with Unreliable and Limited Communication Bandwidth Peter F...Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7913 DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited. STINFO COPY NOTICE AND...invention that may relate to them. Qualified requestors may obtain copies of this report from the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) (http

The Effects of Source Unreliability on Prior and Future Word Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Faught, Gayle G.; Leslie, Alicia D.; Scofield, Jason

2015-01-01

Young children regularly learn words from interactions with other speakers, though not all speakers are reliable informants. Interestingly, children will reverse to trusting a reliable speaker when a previously endorsed speaker proves unreliable. When later asked to identify the referent of a novel word, children who reverse trust are less willing…

Replication unreliability in psychology: elusive phenomena or elusive statistical power?

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Patrizio E Tressoldi

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The focus of this paper is to analyse whether the unreliability of results related to certain controversial psychological phenomena may be a consequence of their low statistical power.Applying the Null Hypothesis Statistical Testing (NHST, still the widest used statistical approach, unreliability derives from the failure to refute the null hypothesis, in particular when exact or quasi-exact replications of experiments are carried out.Taking as example the results of meta-analyses related to four different controversial phenomena, subliminal semantic priming, incubation effect for problem solving, unconscious thought theory, and non-local perception, it was found that, except for semantic priming on categorization, the statistical power to detect the expected effect size of the typical study, is low or very low.The low power in most studies undermines the use of NHST to study phenomena with moderate or low effect sizes.We conclude by providing some suggestions on how to increase the statistical power or use different statistical approaches to help discriminate whether the results obtained may or may not be used to support or to refute the reality of a phenomenon with small effect size.

Use of multivariate statistics to identify unreliable data obtained using CASA.

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Martínez, Luis Becerril; Crispín, Rubén Huerta; Mendoza, Maximino Méndez; Gallegos, Oswaldo Hernández; Martínez, Andrés Aragón

2013-06-01

In order to identify unreliable data in a dataset of motility parameters obtained from a pilot study acquired by a veterinarian with experience in boar semen handling, but without experience in the operation of a computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) system, a multivariate graphical and statistical analysis was performed. Sixteen boar semen samples were aliquoted then incubated with varying concentrations of progesterone from 0 to 3.33 µg/ml and analyzed in a CASA system. After standardization of the data, Chernoff faces were pictured for each measurement, and a principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensionality and pre-process the data before hierarchical clustering. The first twelve individual measurements showed abnormal features when Chernoff faces were drawn. PCA revealed that principal components 1 and 2 explained 63.08% of the variance in the dataset. Values of principal components for each individual measurement of semen samples were mapped to identify differences among treatment or among boars. Twelve individual measurements presented low values of principal component 1. Confidence ellipses on the map of principal components showed no statistically significant effects for treatment or boar. Hierarchical clustering realized on two first principal components produced three clusters. Cluster 1 contained evaluations of the two first samples in each treatment, each one of a different boar. With the exception of one individual measurement, all other measurements in cluster 1 were the same as observed in abnormal Chernoff faces. Unreliable data in cluster 1 are probably related to the operator inexperience with a CASA system. These findings could be used to objectively evaluate the skill level of an operator of a CASA system. This may be particularly useful in the quality control of semen analysis using CASA systems.

Impact of Radio Link Unreliability on the Connectivity of Wireless Sensor Networks

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Gorce Jean-Marie

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Many works have been devoted to connectivity of ad hoc networks. This is an important feature for wireless sensor networks (WSNs to provide the nodes with the capability of communicating with one or several sinks. In most of these works, radio links are assumed ideal, that is, with no transmission errors. To fulfil this assumption, the reception threshold should be high enough to guarantee that radio links have a low transmission error probability. As a consequence, all unreliable links are dismissed. This approach is suboptimal concerning energy consumption because unreliable links should permit to reduce either the transmission power or the number of active nodes. The aim of this paper is to quantify the contribution of unreliable long hops to an increase of the connectivity of WSNs. In our model, each node is assumed to be connected to each other node in a probabilistic manner. Such a network is modeled as a complete random graph, that is, all edges exist. The instantaneous node degree is then defined as the number of simultaneous valid single-hop receptions of the same message, and finally the mean node degree is computed analytically in both AWGN and block-fading channels. We show the impact on connectivity of two MACs and routing parameters. The first one is the energy detection level such as the one used in carrier sense mechanisms. The second one is the reliability threshold used by the routing layer to select stable links only. Both analytic and simulation results show that using opportunistic protocols is challenging.

Impact of Radio Link Unreliability on the Connectivity of Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean-Marie Gorce

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Many works have been devoted to connectivity of ad hoc networks. This is an important feature for wireless sensor networks (WSNs to provide the nodes with the capability of communicating with one or several sinks. In most of these works, radio links are assumed ideal, that is, with no transmission errors. To fulfil this assumption, the reception threshold should be high enough to guarantee that radio links have a low transmission error probability. As a consequence, all unreliable links are dismissed. This approach is suboptimal concerning energy consumption because unreliable links should permit to reduce either the transmission power or the number of active nodes. The aim of this paper is to quantify the contribution of unreliable long hops to an increase of the connectivity of WSNs. In our model, each node is assumed to be connected to each other node in a probabilistic manner. Such a network is modeled as a complete random graph, that is, all edges exist. The instantaneous node degree is then defined as the number of simultaneous valid single-hop receptions of the same message, and finally the mean node degree is computed analytically in both AWGN and block-fading channels. We show the impact on connectivity of two MACs and routing parameters. The first one is the energy detection level such as the one used in carrier sense mechanisms. The second one is the reliability threshold used by the routing layer to select stable links only. Both analytic and simulation results show that using opportunistic protocols is challenging.

Sexy but often unreliable: the impact of unreliability on the replicability of experimental findings with implicit measures.

Science.gov (United States)

Lebel, Etienne P; Paunonen, Sampo V

2011-04-01

Implicit measures have contributed to important insights in almost every area of psychology. However, various issues and challenges remain concerning their use, one of which is their considerable variation in reliability, with many implicit measures having questionable reliability. The goal of the present investigation was to examine an overlooked consequence of this liability with respect to replication, when such implicit measures are used as dependent variables in experimental studies. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, the authors demonstrate that a higher level of unreliability in such dependent variables is associated with substantially lower levels of replicability. The results imply that this overlooked consequence can have far-reaching repercussions for the development of a cumulative science. The authors recommend the routine assessment and reporting of the reliability of implicit measures and also urge the improvement of implicit measures with low reliability.

GUIDANCE2: accurate detection of unreliable alignment regions accounting for the uncertainty of multiple parameters.

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Sela, Itamar; Ashkenazy, Haim; Katoh, Kazutaka; Pupko, Tal

2015-07-01

Inference of multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) is a critical part of phylogenetic and comparative genomics studies. However, from the same set of sequences different MSAs are often inferred, depending on the methodologies used and the assumed parameters. Much effort has recently been devoted to improving the ability to identify unreliable alignment regions. Detecting such unreliable regions was previously shown to be important for downstream analyses relying on MSAs, such as the detection of positive selection. Here we developed GUIDANCE2, a new integrative methodology that accounts for: (i) uncertainty in the process of indel formation, (ii) uncertainty in the assumed guide tree and (iii) co-optimal solutions in the pairwise alignments, used as building blocks in progressive alignment algorithms. We compared GUIDANCE2 with seven methodologies to detect unreliable MSA regions using extensive simulations and empirical benchmarks. We show that GUIDANCE2 outperforms all previously developed methodologies. Furthermore, GUIDANCE2 also provides a set of alternative MSAs which can be useful for downstream analyses. The novel algorithm is implemented as a web-server, available at: http://guidance.tau.ac.il. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Unreliable Sustainable Infrastructure: Three Transformations to Guide Cities towards Becoming Healthy 'Smart Cities'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sperling, Joshua [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Fisher, Stephen [Tetra Tech; Reiner, Mark B. [Non Sequitur, LLC

2017-10-26

The term 'leapfrogging' has been applied to cities and nations that have adopted a new form of infrastructure by bypassing the traditional progression of development, e.g., from no phones to cell phones - bypassing landlines all together. However, leapfrogging from unreliable infrastructure systems to 'smart' cities is too large a jump resulting in unsustainable and unhealthy infrastructure systems. In the Global South, a baseline of unreliable infrastructure is a prevalent problem. The push for sustainable and 'smart' [re]development tends to ignore many of those already living with failing, unreliable infrastructure. Without awareness of baseline conditions, uninformed projects run the risk of returning conditions to the status quo, keeping many urban populations below targets of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. A key part of understanding the baseline is to identify how citizens have long learned to adjust their expectations of basic services. To compensate for poor infrastructure, most residents in the Global South invest in remedial secondary infrastructure (RSI) at the household and business levels. The authors explore three key 'smart' city transformations that address RSI within a hierarchical planning pyramid known as the comprehensive resilient and reliable infrastructure systems (CRISP) planning framework.

Multifractal distribution of spike intervals for two oscillators coupled by unreliable pulses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kestler, Johannes; Kinzel, Wolfgang

2006-01-01

Two neurons coupled by unreliable synapses are modelled by leaky integrate-and-fire neurons and stochastic on-off synapses. The dynamics is mapped to an iterated function system. Numerical calculations yield a multifractal distribution of interspike intervals. The covering, information and correlation dimensions are calculated as a function of synaptic strength and transmission probability. (letter to the editor)

A pilot study into the perception of unreliability of travel times using in-depth interviews

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tseng, Y.-Y.; Verhoef, E.; de Jong, G.; Kouwenhoven, M.; van der Hoorn, T.

2009-01-01

Transport investments normally reduce travel times, but may also reduce unreliability. Conventional time gains can be evaluated in cost benefit analysis using standard values of time. For valuing reliability gains, however, no standard measures are readily available. The Dutch Ministry of Transport

Test-retest reliability and predictors of unreliable reporting for a sexual behavior questionnaire for U.S. men.

Science.gov (United States)

Nyitray, Alan G; Harris, Robin B; Abalos, Andrew T; Nielson, Carrie M; Papenfuss, Mary; Giuliano, Anna R

2010-12-01

Accurate knowledge about human sexual behaviors is important for increasing our understanding of human sexuality; however, there have been few studies assessing the reliability of sexual behavior questionnaires designed for community samples of adult men. A test-retest reliability study was conducted on a questionnaire completed by 334 men who had been recruited in Tucson, Arizona. Reliability coefficients and refusal rates were calculated for 39 non-sexual and sexual behavior questionnaire items. Predictors of unreliable reporting for lifetime number of female sexual partners were also assessed. Refusal rates were generally low, with slightly higher refusal rates for questions related to immigration, income, the frequency of sexual intercourse with women, lifetime number of female sexual partners, and the lifetime number of male anal sex partners. Kappa and intraclass correlation coefficients were substantial or almost perfect for all non-sexual and sexual behavior items. Reliability dropped somewhat, but was still substantial, for items that asked about household income and the men's knowledge of their sexual partners' health, including abnormal Pap tests and prior sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Age and lifetime number of female sexual partners were independent predictors of unreliable reporting while years of education was inversely associated with unreliable reporting. These findings among a community sample of adult men are consistent with other test-retest reliability studies with populations of women and adolescents.

Behavior-based cleaning for unreliable RFID data sets.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Hua; Wu, Quanyuan; Lin, Yisong

2012-01-01

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology promises to revolutionize the way we track items and assets, but in RFID systems, missreading is a common phenomenon and it poses an enormous challenge to RFID data management, so accurate data cleaning becomes an essential task for the successful deployment of systems. In this paper, we present the design and development of a RFID data cleaning system, the first declarative, behavior-based unreliable RFID data smoothing system. We take advantage of kinematic characteristics of tags to assist in RFID data cleaning. In order to establish the conversion relationship between RFID data and kinematic parameters of the tags, we propose a movement behavior detection model. Moreover, a Reverse Order Filling Mechanism is proposed to ensure a more complete access to get the movement behavior characteristics of tag. Finally, we validate our solution with a common RFID application and demonstrate the advantages of our approach through extensive simulations.

MX/G/1 unreliable retrial queue with option of additional service and Bernoulli vacation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charan Jeet Singh

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper, retrial queue with unreliable server and bulk arrivals is investigated. The server is capable of providing m-optional services and any one of these available services, may be rendered to the customer after the first essential service if the customer opts for the same. It is assumed that the server may fail while rendering any phase of service and undergoes for the immediate repair. After the completion of the service of a customer, the server may either take a vacation for a random period or may continue to provide the service to the other customers waiting in the queue. The supplementary variables corresponding to service time, repair time and retrial time are incorporated to determine the queue size distribution. To examine the effect of different parameters on the performance measures of the system, the numerical illustration is given which is supported by numerical simulation and sensitivity analysis.

Vehicle lateral motion regulation under unreliable communication links based on robust H∞ output-feedback control schema

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Cong; Jing, Hui; Wang, Rongrong; Chen, Nan

2018-05-01

This paper presents a robust control schema for vehicle lateral motion regulation under unreliable communication links via controller area network (CAN). The communication links between the system plant and the controller are assumed to be imperfect and therefore the data packet dropouts occur frequently. The paper takes the form of parallel distributed compensation and treats the dropouts as random binary numbers that form Bernoulli distribution. Both of the tire cornering stiffness uncertainty and external disturbances are considered to enhance the robustness of the controller. In addition, a robust H∞ static output-feedback control approach is proposed to realize the lateral motion control with relative low cost sensors. The stochastic stability of the closed-loop system and conservation of the guaranteed H∞ performance are investigated. Simulation results based on CarSim platform using a high-fidelity and full-car model verify the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

Case matching and the reduction of selection bias in quasi-experiments: The relative importance of pretest measures of outcome, of unreliable measurement, and of mode of data analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Thomas D; Steiner, Peter M

2010-03-01

In this article, we note the many ontological, epistemological, and methodological similarities between how Campbell and Rubin conceptualize causation. We then explore 3 differences in their written emphases about individual case matching in observational studies. We contend that (a) Campbell places greater emphasis than Rubin on the special role of pretest measures of outcome among matching variables; (b) Campbell is more explicitly concerned with unreliability in the covariates; and (c) for analyzing the outcome, only Rubin emphasizes the advantages of using propensity score over regression methods. To explore how well these 3 factors reduce bias, we reanalyze and review within-study comparisons that contrast experimental and statistically adjusted nonexperimental causal estimates from studies with the same target population and treatment content. In this context, the choice of covariates counts most for reducing selection bias, and the pretest usually plays a special role relative to all the other covariates considered singly. Unreliability in the covariates also influences bias reduction but by less. Furthermore, propensity score and regression methods produce comparable degrees of bias reduction, though these within-study comparisons may not have met the theoretically specified conditions most likely to produce differences due to analytic method.

System-theoretic analysis of due-time performance in production systems

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David Jacobs

1995-01-01

Full Text Available Along with the average production rate, the due-time performance is an important characteristic of manufacturing systems. Unlike the production rate, the due-time performance has received relatively little attention in the literature, especially in the context of large volume production. This paper is devoted to this topic. Specifically, the notion of due-time performance is formalized as the probability that the number of parts produced during the shipping period reaches the required shipment size. This performance index is analyzed for both lean and mass manufacturing environments. In particular, it is shown that, to achieve a high due-time performance in a lean environment, the production system should be scheduled for a sufficiently small fraction of its average production rate. In mass production, due-time performance arbitrarily close to one can be achieved for any scheduling practice, up to the average production rate.

System-theoretic analysis of due-time performance in production systems

OpenAIRE

Jacobs David; Meerkov Semyon M.

1995-01-01

Along with the average production rate, the due-time performance is an important characteristic of manufacturing systems. Unlike the production rate, the due-time performance has received relatively little attention in the literature, especially in the context of large volume production. This paper is devoted to this topic. Specifically, the notion of due-time performance is formalized as the probability that the number of parts produced during the shipping period reaches the required shipme...

Source unreliability decreases but does not cancel the impact of social information on metacognitive evaluations.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacquot, Amélie; Eskenazi, Terry; Sales-Wuillemin, Edith; Montalan, Benoît; Proust, Joëlle; Grèzes, Julie; Conty, Laurence

2015-01-01

Through metacognitive evaluations, individuals assess their own cognitive operations with respect to their current goals. We have previously shown that non-verbal social cues spontaneously influence these evaluations, even when the cues are unreliable. Here, we explore whether a belief about the reliability of the source can modulate this form of social impact. Participants performed a two-alternative forced choice task that varied in difficulty. The task was followed by a video of a person who was presented as being either competent or incompetent at performing the task. That person provided random feedback to the participant through facial expressions indicating agreement, disagreement or uncertainty. Participants then provided a metacognitive evaluation by rating their confidence in their answer. Results revealed that participants' confidence was higher following agreements. Interestingly, this effect was merely reduced but not canceled for the incompetent individual, even though participants were able to perceive the individual's incompetence. Moreover, perceived agreement induced zygomaticus activity, but only when the feedback was provided for difficult trials by the competent individual. This last result strongly suggests that people implicitly appraise the relevance of social feedback with respect to their current goal. Together, our findings suggest that people always integrate social agreement into their metacognitive evaluations, even when epistemic vigilance mechanisms alert them to the risk of being misinformed.

Baroreflex dysfunction in sick newborns makes heart rate an unreliable surrogate for blood pressure changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Govindan, Rathinaswamy B; Al-Shargabi, Tareq; Massaro, An N; Metzler, Marina; Andescavage, Nickie N; Joshi, Radhika; Dave, Rhiya; du Plessis, Adre

2016-06-01

Cerebral pressure passivity (CPP) in sick newborns can be detected by evaluating coupling between mean arterial pressure (MAP) and cerebral blood flow measured by near infra-red spectroscopy hemoglobin difference (HbD). However, continuous MAP monitoring requires invasive catheterization with its inherent risks. We tested whether heart rate (HR) could serve as a reliable surrogate for MAP in the detection of CPP in sick newborns. Continuous measurements of MAP, HR, and HbD were made and partitioned into 10-min epochs. Spectral coherence (COH) was computed between MAP and HbD (COHMAP-HbD) to detect CPP, between HR and HbD (COHHR-HbD) for comparison, and between MAP and HR (COHMAP-HR) to quantify baroreflex function (BRF). The agreement between COHMAP-HbD and COHHR-HbD was assessed using ROC analysis. We found poor agreement between COHMAP-HbD and COHHR-HbD in left hemisphere (area under the ROC curve (AUC) 0.68) and right hemisphere (AUC 0.71). Baroreflex failure (COHMAP-HR not significant) was present in 79% of epochs. Confining comparison to epochs with intact BRF showed an AUC of 0.85 for both hemispheres. In these sick newborns, HR was an unreliable surrogate for MAP required for the detection of CPP. This is likely due to the prevalence of BRF failure in these infants.

An Improved Model for Headway-Based Bus Service Unreliability Prevention with Vehicle Load Capacity Constraint at Bus Stops

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weiya Chen

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an improved model for improving headway-based bus route service reliability at bus stops using real-time preventive operation control, taking into account dynamic interaction among random passenger demand, stochastic driving conditions of route segments, and vehicle load capacity constraint. In this model, the real-time information of passenger demand and vehicle operation is involved to predict the imminent unacceptable headway deviation, in the case of which some in-time preventive control strategies are deployed according to the given control rules. As a case study, a single fixed bus route with high-frequency services was simulated and different scenarios of real-time preventive operation control were performed. Headway adherence and average passenger wait time were used to measure bus service reliability. The results show that the improved model is closer to the real bus route service, and using real-time information to predict potential service unreliability and trigger in-time preventive control can reduce bus bunching and avoid big gap.

Performance Analysis of Faulty Gallager-B Decoding of QC-LDPC Codes with Applications

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O. Al Rasheed

2014-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper we evaluate the performance of Gallager-B algorithm, used for decoding low-density parity-check (LDPC codes, under unreliable message computation. Our analysis is restricted to LDPC codes constructed from circular matrices (QC-LDPC codes. Using Monte Carlo simulation we investigate the effects of different code parameters on coding system performance, under a binary symmetric communication channel and independent transient faults model. One possible application of the presented analysis in designing memory architecture with unreliable components is considered.

Vacation model for Markov machine repair problem with two heterogeneous unreliable servers and threshold recovery

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, Madhu; Meena, Rakesh Kumar

2018-03-01

Markov model of multi-component machining system comprising two unreliable heterogeneous servers and mixed type of standby support has been studied. The repair job of broken down machines is done on the basis of bi-level threshold policy for the activation of the servers. The server returns back to render repair job when the pre-specified workload of failed machines is build up. The first (second) repairman turns on only when the work load of N1 (N2) failed machines is accumulated in the system. The both servers may go for vacation in case when all the machines are in good condition and there are no pending repair jobs for the repairmen. Runge-Kutta method is implemented to solve the set of governing equations used to formulate the Markov model. Various system metrics including the mean queue length, machine availability, throughput, etc., are derived to determine the performance of the machining system. To provide the computational tractability of the present investigation, a numerical illustration is provided. A cost function is also constructed to determine the optimal repair rate of the server by minimizing the expected cost incurred on the system. The hybrid soft computing method is considered to develop the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). The validation of the numerical results obtained by Runge-Kutta approach is also facilitated by computational results generated by ANFIS.

Search for all MCs in networks with unreliable nodes and arcs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yeh, W.-C.

2003-01-01

A simple method is proposed to search for all minimal cutsets (MCs ) for imperfect networks reliability subject to both arc and node failures under the condition that all of the MCs in the network with perfect nodes are given in advance. The proposed method does not require re-enumeration for all of the MCs for additional node failure consideration. All of the MC candidates found in the proposed algorithm are actual MCs without any need for further verification. This algorithm is more effective than the existing algorithm in which every MC candidate is not verified as a MC. No identical MCs are found using the proposed algorithm, which does not duplicate MCs and is more efficient than the existing methods. Only simple concepts are used to implement the proposed algorithm, which makes it easier to understand and implement. With considering unreliable nodes, the proposed method is also more realistic and valuable for reliability analysis in an existing network. The correctness of the proposed algorithm will be analyzed and proven. One example is used to illustrate how all MCs are generated in a network with arc and node failures solved using the proposed algorithm

Similar reliability and equivalent performance of female and male mice in the open field and water-maze place navigation task

OpenAIRE

Fritz, Ann-Kristina; Amrein, Irmgard; Wolfer, David P.

2017-01-01

Although most nervous system diseases affect women and men differentially, most behavioral studies using mouse models do not include subjects of both sexes. Many researchers worry that data of female mice may be unreliable due to the estrous cycle. Here, we retrospectively evaluated sex effects on coefficient of variation (CV) in 5,311 mice which had performed the same place navigation protocol in the water-maze and in 4,554 mice tested in the same open field arena. Confidence intervals for C...

Error and Performance Analysis of MEMS-based Inertial Sensors with a Low-cost GPS Receiver

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Gao

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS, have been widely utilized and their applications are becoming popular, not only in military or commercial applications, but also for everyday life. Although GPS measurements are the essential information for currently developed land vehicle navigation systems (LVNS, GPS signals are often unavailable or unreliable due to signal blockages under certain environments such as urban canyons. This situation must be compensated in order to provide continuous navigation solutions. To overcome the problems of unavailability and unreliability using GPS and to be cost and size effective as well, Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS based inertial sensor technology has been pushing for the development of low-cost integrated navigation systems for land vehicle navigation and guidance applications. This paper will analyze the characterization of MEMS based inertial sensors and the performance of an integrated system prototype of MEMS based inertial sensors, a low-cost GPS receiver and a digital compass. The influence of the stochastic variation of sensors will be assessed and modeled by two different methods, namely Gauss-Markov (GM and AutoRegressive (AR models, with GPS signal blockage of different lengths. Numerical results from kinematic testing have been used to assess the performance of different modeling schemes.

Personality, political skill, and job performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blickle, G.; Meurs, J.A.; Zettler, Ingo

2008-01-01

constructs of agreeableness and conscientiousness with political skill predict job performance. Our results supported our hypothesis for the agreeableness-political skill interaction. Additionally, after correcting for the unreliability and restricted range of conscientiousness, we found that its interaction...... with political skill also significantly predicted job performance, although not precisely as hypothesized. Implications of the results and directions for future research are provided....

A k-out-of-n reliability system with an unreliable server and phase type repairs and services: the (N,T policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Srinivas R. Chakravarthy

2001-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper we study a k-out-of-n reliability system in which a single unreliable server maintains n identical components. The reliability system is studied under the (N,T policy. An idle server takes a vacation for a random amount of time T and then attends to any failed component waiting in line upon completion of the vacation. The vacationing server is recalled instantaneously upon the failure of the Nth component. The failure times of the components are assumed to follow an exponential distribution. The server is subject to failure with failure times exponentially distributed. Repair times of the component, fixing times of the server, and vacationing times of the server are assumed to be of phase type. Using matrix-analytic methods we perform steady state analysis of this model. Time spent by a failed component in service, total time in the repair facility, vacation time of the server, non-vacation time of the server, and time until failure of the system are all shown to be of phase type. Several performance measures are evaluated. Illustrative numerical examples are presented.

Conservation of filtering in manufacturing systems with unreliable machines and finished goods buffers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2006-01-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses the issue of reliable satisfaction of customer demand by unreliable production systems. In the framework of a simple production-storage-customer model, we show that this can be accomplished by using an appropriate level of filtering of production randomness. The filtering is ensured by finished goods buffers (filtering in space and shipping periods (filtering in time. The following question is considered: how are filtering in space and filtering in time interrelated? As an answer, we show that there exists a conservation law: in lean manufacturing systems, the amount of filtering in space multiplied by the amount of filteringin time (both measured in appropriate dimensionless units ispractically constant. Along with providing an insight into the nature of manufacturing systems, this law offers a tool for selecting the smallest, that is, lean, finished goods buffering, which is necessary and sufficient to ensure the desired level ofcustomer demand satisfaction.

Coal on the shovel. Choice for coal is choosing for expensive, scarce and unreliable; Kolen op de schop. Kiezen voor kolen is kiezen voor duur, schaars en onbetrouwbaar

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2008-07-01

Researchers of Peak oil warn about imminent worldwide coal shortages as of 2025. Countries that fully depend on coal import, such as the Netherlands, run great risks due to strongly rising prices and insecurity of supply. How large is the supply of extractable coal? How long will extraction and export continue undisturbed under increasing demand? What effect will this have on the coal price? The real data on supply, demand, price and export mainly tell a tale of unreliable reserves and high prices according to Greenpeace. (mk) [Dutch] Onderzoekers van Peakoil waarschuwen dat vanaf 2025 wereldwijd kolentekorten dreigen. Landen die volledig afhankelijk zijn van de import van kolen, zoals Nederland, lopen een groot risico door sterk stijgende prijzen en onzekere levering. Hoe groot is de winbare kolenvoorraad? Hoe lang gaan winning en export ongestoord door bij een groeiende vraag? Wat betekent dit voor de kolenprijs? De werkelijke gegevens over voorraad, vraag, prijs en export vertellen volgens Greenpeace vooral een verhaal van onbetrouwbare reserves en hoge prijzen.

Influence of test reliability on the screening performance of frequency-doubling perimetry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heeg, GP; Jansonius, NM

PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of test reliability on the screening performance of frequency,doubling perimetry (FDT). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: FDT sensitivity and specificity were calculated three times using three different strategies for handling unreliable (that is, > 0

Cooperation Survives and Cheating Pays in a Dynamic Network Structure with Unreliable Reputation

Science.gov (United States)

Antonioni, Alberto; Sánchez, Angel; Tomassini, Marco

2016-06-01

In a networked society like ours, reputation is an indispensable tool to guide decisions about social or economic interactions with individuals otherwise unknown. Usually, information about prospective counterparts is incomplete, often being limited to an average success rate. Uncertainty on reputation is further increased by fraud, which is increasingly becoming a cause of concern. To address these issues, we have designed an experiment based on the Prisoner’s Dilemma as a model for social interactions. Participants could spend money to have their observable cooperativeness increased. We find that the aggregate cooperation level is practically unchanged, i.e., global behavior does not seem to be affected by unreliable reputations. However, at the individual level we find two distinct types of behavior, one of reliable subjects and one of cheaters, where the latter artificially fake their reputation in almost every interaction. Cheaters end up being better off than honest individuals, who not only keep their true reputation but are also more cooperative. In practice, this results in honest subjects paying the costs of fraud as cheaters earn the same as in a truthful environment. These findings point to the importance of ensuring the truthfulness of reputation for a more equitable and fair society.

A high performance totally ordered multicast protocol

Science.gov (United States)

Montgomery, Todd; Whetten, Brian; Kaplan, Simon

1995-01-01

This paper presents the Reliable Multicast Protocol (RMP). RMP provides a totally ordered, reliable, atomic multicast service on top of an unreliable multicast datagram service such as IP Multicasting. RMP is fully and symmetrically distributed so that no site bears un undue portion of the communication load. RMP provides a wide range of guarantees, from unreliable delivery to totally ordered delivery, to K-resilient, majority resilient, and totally resilient atomic delivery. These QoS guarantees are selectable on a per packet basis. RMP provides many communication options, including virtual synchrony, a publisher/subscriber model of message delivery, an implicit naming service, mutually exclusive handlers for messages, and mutually exclusive locks. It has commonly been held that a large performance penalty must be paid in order to implement total ordering -- RMP discounts this. On SparcStation 10's on a 1250 KB/sec Ethernet, RMP provides totally ordered packet delivery to one destination at 842 KB/sec throughput and with 3.1 ms packet latency. The performance stays roughly constant independent of the number of destinations. For two or more destinations on a LAN, RMP provides higher throughput than any protocol that does not use multicast or broadcast.

Unreliability and error in the military's "gold standard" measure of sexual harassment by education and gender.

Science.gov (United States)

Murdoch, Maureen; Pryor, John B; Griffin, Joan M; Ripley, Diane Cowper; Gackstetter, Gary D; Polusny, Melissa A; Hodges, James S

2011-01-01

The Department of Defense's "gold standard" sexual harassment measure, the Sexual Harassment Core Measure (SHCore), is based on an earlier measure that was developed primarily in college women. Furthermore, the SHCore requires a reading grade level of 9.1. This may be higher than some troops' reading abilities and could generate unreliable estimates of their sexual harassment experiences. Results from 108 male and 96 female soldiers showed that the SHCore's temporal stability and alternate-forms reliability was significantly worse (a) in soldiers without college experience compared to soldiers with college experience and (b) in men compared to women. For men without college experience, almost 80% of the temporal variance in SHCore scores was attributable to error. A plain language version of the SHCore had mixed effects on temporal stability depending on education and gender. The SHCore may be particularly ill suited for evaluating population trends of sexual harassment in military men without college experience.

The diagnostic performance of imaging methods in ARVC using the 2010 Task Force criteria

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borgquist, Rasmus; Haugaa, Kristina H; Gilljam, Thomas

2014-01-01

, fractional area shortening 31 ± 9 vs. 39 ± 9% (P performance was low; sensitivity 50% and specificity 70%, positive predictive value 80% and negative predictive value 37...... evaluation of subtle structural changes in the right ventricle may be unreliable, and the diagnostic performance of CMR compared with echocardiography should be reflected in the guidelines....

Reliability/unreliability of mixture rule in a low alloy ferrite–martensite dual phase steel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fereiduni, E.; Ghasemi Banadkouki, S.S.

2013-01-01

Highlights: •The ferrite hardening response is quite variable in DP microstructures. •Martensite microhardness has not shown a specific manner in DP microstructures. •There is a major difference between experimental and calculated hardness values. •Mixture rule can be applied to predict the hardness if using some assumptions. -- Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate in details the relationship between the volume fractions of ferrite and martensite with the variation of hardness in a low alloy ferrite–martensite dual phase (DP) steel. For this purpose, a wide variety of ferrite–martensite DP samples consisting different volume fractions of ferrite and martensite have been developed using step quenching heat treatment cycle involving reheating at 860 °C for 60 min, soaking at 600 °C salt bath for various holding times followed by 70 °C hot oil quenching. Optical microscopy has been supplemented by electron microscopy and hardness measurements to follow microstructural changes and their relation to the variation in hardness. The results showed that there is a non-linear relationship between the hardness of DP samples with the volume fraction of phase constituents indicating that the mixture rule is not reliable in the ferrite–martensite DP microstructures. The unreliability of mixture rule is related to the variation of ferrite and martensite hardening responses developed in the DP samples. The DP microstructure consisting 6–7% volume fraction of continuous grain boundary ferrite in the vicinity of martensite has been associated with a remarkable higher hardness for both ferrite and martensite in comparison with the other DP microstructures. The higher martensite hardness is due to the higher carbon content of the remaining metastable austenite developed in the ferrite–austenite two phase field area, leading to the harder martensite formation on the subsequent 70 °C hot oil quenching. The harder ferrite grains have been developed as a

PERFORMANCE DETERIORATION OF THERMOSIPHON SOLAR FLAT PLATE WATER HEATER DUE TO SCALING

OpenAIRE

arunachala umesh chandavar

2011-01-01

The performance of Flat plate Solar Water Heater deteriorates within five to twelve years of their installation due to factors related to manufacturing, operating conditions, lack of maintenance etc. Especially, problem due to scaling is significant as it is based on quality of water used. The remaining factors are system dependent and could be overcome by quality production. Software is developed by incorporating Hottel Whillier Bliss (H-W-B) equation to ascertain the effect of scaling o...

Degradation of the performance of microchannel heat exchangers due to flow maldistribution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kaspar Kirstein; Engelbrecht, Kurt; Christensen, Dennis

2012-01-01

The effect of flow maldistribution on the performance of microchannel parallel plate heat exchangers is investigated using an established single blow numerical model and cyclic steady-state regenerator experiments. It is found that as the variation of the individual channel thickness...... in a particular stack (heat exchanger) increases the actual performance of the heat exchanger decreases significantly, deviating from the expected nominal performance. We show that this is due to both the varying fluid flow velocities in each individual channel and the thermal cross talk between the channels...

Fuzzy production planning models for an unreliable production system with fuzzy production rate and stochastic/fuzzy demand rate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. A. Halim

2011-01-01

Full Text Available In this article, we consider a single-unit unreliable production system which produces a single item. During a production run, the production process may shift from the in-control state to the out-of-control state at any random time when it produces some defective items. The defective item production rate is assumed to be imprecise and is characterized by a trapezoidal fuzzy number. The production rate is proportional to the demand rate where the proportionality constant is taken to be a fuzzy number. Two production planning models are developed on the basis of fuzzy and stochastic demand patterns. The expected cost per unit time in the fuzzy sense is derived in each model and defuzzified by using the graded mean integration representation method. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the optimal results of the proposed fuzzy models.

Influence of pitch, twist, and taper on a blade`s performance loss due to roughness

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tangler, J.L. [National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)

1996-12-31

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of blade geometric parameters such as pitch, twist, and taper on a blade`s sensitivity to leading edge roughness. The approach began with an evaluation of available test data of performance degradation due to roughness effects for several rotors. In addition to airfoil geometry, this evaluation suggested that a rotor`s sensitivity to roughness was also influenced by the blade geometric parameters. Parametric studies were conducted using the PROP computer code with wind-tunnel airfoil characteristics for smooth and rough surface conditions to quantify the performance loss due to roughness for tapered and twisted blades relative to a constant-chord, non-twisted blade at several blade pitch angles. The results indicate that a constant-chord, non-twisted blade pitched toward stall will have the greatest losses due to roughness. The use of twist, taper, and positive blade pitch angles all help reduce the angle-of-attack distribution along the blade for a given wind speed and the associated performance degradation due to roughness. 8 refs., 6 figs.

Influence of pitch, twist, and taper on a blade`s performance loss due to roughness

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tangler, J.L. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado (United States)

1997-08-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of blade geometric parameters such as pitch, twist, and taper on a blade`s sensitivity to leading edge roughness. The approach began with an evaluation of available test data of performance degradation due to roughness effects for several rotors. In addition to airfoil geometry, this evaluation suggested that a rotor`s sensitivity to roughness was also influenced by the blade geometric parameters. Parametric studies were conducted using the PROP computer code with wind-tunnel airfoil characteristics for smooth and rough surface conditions to quantify the performance loss due to roughness for tapered and twisted blades relative to a constant-chord, non-twisted blade at several blade pitch angles. The results indicate that a constant-chord, non-twisted blade pitched toward stall will have the greatest losses due to roughness. The use of twist, taper, and positive blade pitch angles all help reduce the angle-of-attack distribution along the blade for a given wind speed and the associated performance degradation due to roughness. (au)

Performance of multi-service system with retrials due to blocking and called-party-busy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stepanov, S.N.; Kokina, O.A.; Iversen, Villy Bæk

2008-01-01

In this paper we construct a model of a multi-service system with an arbitrary number of bandwidth flow demands, taking into account retrials due to both blocking along the route and to called-party-busy. An approximate algorithm for estimation of key performance measures is proposed, and the pro......In this paper we construct a model of a multi-service system with an arbitrary number of bandwidth flow demands, taking into account retrials due to both blocking along the route and to called-party-busy. An approximate algorithm for estimation of key performance measures is proposed...

Optimal Dispatch of Unreliable Electric Grid-Connected Diesel Generator-Battery Power Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, D.; Kang, L.

2015-06-01

Diesel generator (DG)-battery power systems are often adopted by telecom operators, especially in semi-urban and rural areas of developing countries. Unreliable electric grids (UEG), which have frequent and lengthy outages, are peculiar to these regions. DG-UEG-battery power system is an important kind of hybrid power system. System dispatch is one of the key factors to hybrid power system integration. In this paper, the system dispatch of a DG-UEG-lead acid battery power system is studied with the UEG of relatively ample electricity in Central African Republic (CAR) and UEG of poor electricity in Congo Republic (CR). The mathematical models of the power system and the UEG are studied for completing the system operation simulation program. The net present cost (NPC) of the power system is the main evaluation index. The state of charge (SOC) set points and battery bank charging current are the optimization variables. For the UEG in CAR, the optimal dispatch solution is SOC start and stop points 0.4 and 0.5 that belong to the Micro-Cycling strategy and charging current 0.1 C. For the UEG in CR, the optimal dispatch solution is of 0.1 and 0.8 that belongs to the Cycle-Charging strategy and 0.1 C. Charging current 0.1 C is suitable for both grid scenarios compared to 0.2 C. It makes the dispatch strategy design easier in commercial practices that there are a few very good candidate dispatch solutions with system NPC values close to that of the optimal solution for both UEG scenarios in CAR and CR.

Did Your Mailed Ballot Count: The Unrecognized Unreliability of Voting By Mail

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alec Yasinsac

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Voting By Mail (VBM was developed to support absentee voters. It was originally intended to handle canonical absentee voters who now fall under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Voting Act (UOCAVA and those with legally acceptable reasons for being unable to appear at the polls on Election Day. Its use slowly expanded to more casual justifications, such as those with planned Election Day travel. More recently, there has been a trend of further expansion to on-demand VBM in many states. As a result, the percentage of VBM ballots has skyrocketed, with little research regarding its impacts on security, privacy, reliability, and accuracy on U. S. elections. In virtually every close election, the outcome must await tabulation of VBM ballots. Yet, VBM may be the least reliable voting approach in wide spread use today. Vote By Mail fraud is recognized by some as possibly the single greatest security vulnerability in U. S. elections. The lack of in-person, at-the-polls accountability makes absentee ballots the tool of choice for those inclined to commit fraud," the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded in 1998, after a mayoral election in Miami was thrown out when officials learned that "vote brokers" had signed hundreds of phony absentee ballots.1 Conversely, others recognize theoretical weaknesses in VBM, but generally dismiss its practical impact [1, 2]. Others continue to promote VBM expansion [3, 4]. In this paper, we identify inherent, widespread vulnerability in VBM systems and illustrate their practical impact with numerous examples. We show specifically why VBM systems are not auditable and demonstrate how their unreliability can negatively impact real elections.

Evolutional development of controlling software for agricultural vehicles and robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nakanishi, Tsuneo; Jæger-Hansen, Claes Lund; Griepentrog, Hans-Werner

Agricultural vehicles and robots expand their controlling software in size and complexity for their increasing functions. Due to repeated, ad hoc addition and modification, software gets structurally corrupted and becomes low performing, resource consuming and unreliable. This paper presents...

"Unreliability as a threat to understanding psychopathology: The cautionary tale of attentional bias": Correction to Rodebaugh et al. (2016).

Science.gov (United States)

2016-10-01

Reports an error in "Unreliability as a threat to understanding psychopathology: The cautionary tale of attentional bias" by Thomas L. Rodebaugh, Rachel B. Scullin, Julia K. Langer, David J. Dixon, Jonathan D. Huppert, Amit Bernstein, Ariel Zvielli and Eric J. Lenze ( Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 2016[Aug], Vol 125[6], 840-851). There was an error in the Author Note concerning the support of the MacBrain Face Stimulus Set. The correct statement is provided. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2016-30117-001.) The use of unreliable measures constitutes a threat to our understanding of psychopathology, because advancement of science using both behavioral and biologically oriented measures can only be certain if such measurements are reliable. Two pillars of the National Institute of Mental Health's portfolio-the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative for psychopathology and the target engagement initiative in clinical trials-cannot succeed without measures that possess the high reliability necessary for tests involving mediation and selection based on individual differences. We focus on the historical lack of reliability of attentional bias measures as an illustration of how reliability can pose a threat to our understanding. Our own data replicate previous findings of poor reliability for traditionally used scores, which suggests a serious problem with the ability to test theories regarding attentional bias. This lack of reliability may also suggest problems with the assumption (in both theory and the formula for the scores) that attentional bias is consistent and stable across time. In contrast, measures accounting for attention as a dynamic process in time show good reliability in our data. The field is sorely in need of research reporting findings and reliability for attentional bias scores using multiple methods, including those focusing on dynamic processes over time. We urge researchers to test and report reliability of

Unreliability as a Threat to Understanding Psychopathology: The Cautionary Tale of Attentional Bias

Science.gov (United States)

Rodebaugh, Thomas L.; Scullin, Rachel B.; Langer, Julia K.; Dixon, David J.; Huppert, Jonathan D.; Bernstein, Amit; Zvielli, Ariel; Lenze, Eric J.

2016-01-01

The use of unreliable measures constitutes a threat to our understanding of psychopathology, because advancement of science using both behavioral and biologically-oriented measures can only be certain if such measurements are reliable. Two pillars of NIMH’s portfolio – the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative for psychopathology and the target engagement initiative in clinical trials – cannot succeed without measures that possess the high reliability necessary for tests involving mediation and selection based on individual differences. We focus on the historical lack of reliability of attentional bias measures as an illustration of how reliability can pose a threat to our understanding. Our own data replicate previous findings of poor reliability for traditionally-used scores, which suggests a serious problem with the ability to test theories regarding attentional bias. This lack of reliability may also suggest problems with the assumption (in both theory and the formula for the scores) that attentional bias is consistent and stable across time. In contrast, measures accounting for attention as a dynamic process in time show good reliability in our data. The field is sorely in need of research reporting findings and reliability for attentional bias scores using multiple methods, including those focusing on dynamic processes over time. We urge researchers to test and report reliability of all measures, considering findings of low reliability not just as a nuisance but as an opportunity to modify and improve upon the underlying theory. Full assessment of reliability of measures will maximize the possibility that RDoC (and psychological science more generally) will succeed. PMID:27322741

At Home in Service Discovery

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sundramoorthy, V.

2006-01-01

Modern computer systems (since 1950s) evolved from being bulky, unreliable and expensive, to being tiny, reliable, cheaper and faster. Improvements in size, expense and performance was due to the evolution in computer hardware; from vacuum tubes, magnetic tapes, integrated circuits, to very

Monte Carlo simulation of Markov unreliability models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, E.E.; Boehm, F.

1984-01-01

A Monte Carlo method is formulated for the evaluation of the unrealibility of complex systems with known component failure and repair rates. The formulation is in terms of a Markov process allowing dependences between components to be modeled and computational efficiencies to be achieved in the Monte Carlo simulation. Two variance reduction techniques, forced transition and failure biasing, are employed to increase computational efficiency of the random walk procedure. For an example problem these result in improved computational efficiency by more than three orders of magnitudes over analog Monte Carlo. The method is generalized to treat problems with distributed failure and repair rate data, and a batching technique is introduced and shown to result in substantial increases in computational efficiency for an example problem. A method for separating the variance due to the data uncertainty from that due to the finite number of random walks is presented. (orig.)

Performance degradation of space Stirling cryocoolers due to gas contamination

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xin-guang; Wu, Yi-nong; Yang, Shao-hua; Zhang, Xiao-ming; Lu, Guo-hua; Zhang, Li

2011-08-01

With extensive application of infrared detective techniques, Stirling cryocoolers, used as an active cooling source, have been developed vigorously in China. After the cooler's cooling performance can satisfy the mission's request, its reliability level is crucial for its application. Among all the possible failure mechanisms, gas contamination has been found to be the most notorious cause of cooler's performance degradation by failure analyses. To analyze the characteristic of gas contamination, some experiments were designed and carried out to quantitatively analyze the relationship between failure and performance. Combined with the test results and the outgassing characteristic of non-metal materials in the cryocooler, a degradation model of cooling performance was given by T(t)=T0+A[1-exp(-t/B)] under some assumptions, where t is the running time, T is the Kelvin cooling temperature, and T0, A, B are model parameters, which can be given by the least square method. Here T0 is the fitting initial cooling temperature, A is the maximum range of performance degradation, and B is the time dependent constant of degradation. But the model parameters vary when a cryocooler is running at different cooling temperature ranges, or it is treated by different cleaning process. In order to verify the applicability of the degradation model, data fit analysis on eight groups of cooler's lifetime test was carried out. The final work indicated this model fit well with the performance degradation of space Stirling cryocoolers due to gas contamination and this model could be used to predict or evaluation the cooler's lifetime. Gaseous contamination will not arouse severe performance degradation until the contaminants accumulate to a certain amount, but it could be fatal when it works. So it is more serious to the coolers whose lifetime is more than 10,000 h. The measures taken to control or minimize its damage were discussed as well. To the long-life cryocooler, internal materials

Unreliable patient identification warrants ABO typing at admission to check existing records before transfusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrera-Tourenc, V; Lassale, B; Chiaroni, J; Dettori, I

2015-06-01

This study describes patient identification errors leading to transfusional near-misses in blood issued by the Alps Mediterranean French Blood Establishment (EFSAM) to Marseille Public Hospitals (APHM) over an 18-month period. The EFSAM consolidates 14 blood banks in southeast France. It supplies 149 hospitals and maintains a centralized database on ABO types used at all area hospitals. As an added precaution against incompatible transfusion, the APHM requires ABO testing at each admission regardless of whether the patient has an ABO record. The study goal was to determine if admission testing was warranted. Discrepancies between ABO type determined by admission testing and records in the centralized database were investigated. The root cause for each discrepancy was classified as specimen collection or patient admission error. Causes of patient admission events were further subclassified as namesake (name similarity) or impersonation (identity fraud). The incidence of ABO discrepancies was 1:2334 including a 1:3329 incidence of patient admission events. Impersonation was the main cause of identity events accounting for 90.3% of cases. The APHM's ABO control policy prevented 19 incompatible transfusions. In relation to the 48,593 packed red cell units transfused, this would have corresponded to a risk of 1:2526. Collecting and storing ABO typing results in a centralized database is an essential public health tool. It allows crosschecking of current test results with past records and avoids redundant testing. However, as patient identification remains unreliable, ABO typing at each admission is still warranted to prevent transfusion errors. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Effects on Performance and Work Quality due to Low Frequency Ventilation Noise

Science.gov (United States)

Persson Waye, K.; Rylander, R.; Benton, S.; Leventhall, H. G.

1997-08-01

A pilot study was carried out to assess method evaluating effects of low frequency noise on performance. Of special interest was to study objective and subjective effects over time. Two ventilation noises were used, one of a predominantly mid frequency character and the other of a predominantly low frequency character. Both had an NC value of 35. For the study, 50 students were recruited and 30 selected on the basis of subjective reports of pressure on the eardrum after exposure to a low frequency noise. Of these, 14 randomly selected subjects aged 21 and 34 took part. The subjects performed three computerized cognitive tests in the mid frequency or the low frequency noise condition alternatively. Tests I and II were performed together with a secondary task.Questionnaires were used to evaluate subjective symptoms, effects on mood and estimated interference with the test results due to temperature, light and noise. The results showed that the subjective estimations of noise interference with performance were higher for the low frequency noise (psocial orientation (pstudied. The results further indicate that the NC curves do not fully assess the negative effects of low frequency noise on work performance.

Cognitive flexibility: A distinct element of performance impairment due to sleep deprivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Honn, K A; Hinson, J M; Whitney, P; Van Dongen, H P A

2018-03-14

In around-the-clock operations, reduced alertness due to circadian misalignment and sleep loss causes performance impairment, which can lead to catastrophic errors and accidents. There is mounting evidence that performance on different tasks is differentially affected, but the general principles underlying this differentiation are not well understood. One factor that may be particularly relevant is the degree to which tasks require executive control, that is, control over the initiation, monitoring, and termination of actions in order to achieve goals. A key aspect of this is cognitive flexibility, i.e., the deployment of cognitive control resources to adapt to changes in events. Loss of cognitive flexibility due to sleep deprivation has been attributed to "feedback blunting," meaning that feedback on behavioral outcomes has reduced salience - and that feedback is therefore less effective at driving behavior modification under changing circumstances. The cognitive mechanisms underlying feedback blunting are as yet unknown. Here we present data from an experiment that investigated the effects of sleep deprivation on performance after an unexpected reversal of stimulus-response mappings, requiring cognitive flexibility to maintain good performance. Nineteen healthy young adults completed a 4-day in-laboratory study. Subjects were randomized to either a total sleep deprivation condition (n = 11) or a control condition (n = 8). Athree-phase reversal learning decision task was administered at baseline, and again after 30.5 h of sleep deprivation, or matching well-rested control. The task was based on a go/no go task paradigm, in which stimuli were assigned to either a go (response) set or a no go (no response) set. Each phase of the task included four stimuli (two in the go set and two in the no go set). After each stimulus presentation, subjects could make a response within 750 ms or withhold their response. They were then shown feedback on the accuracy of

Graceful degradation of CACC performance subject to unreliable wireless communication

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ploeg, J.; Semsar-Kazerooni, E.; Lijster, G.; Wouw, N. van de; Nijmeijer, H.

2013-01-01

Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) employs wireless intervehicle communication, in addition to onboard sensors, to obtain string-stable vehicle-following behavior at small intervehicle distances. As a consequence, however, CACC is vulnerable to communication impairments such as packet loss,

Development of autonomic management solutions for the military application domain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Werkman, E.; Schoonhoven, B. van; Jonge, M. de; Matthijssen, E.

2010-01-01

The Dutch Ministry of Defence is faced with ICT management problems, due to the increased use of complex ICT systems in the battle field. Solutions in the industry, such as remote assistance, cannot be applied in a domain with unreliable, low-bandwidth connections. In a case study performed at the

GASNet-EX Performance Improvements Due to Specialization for the Cray Aries Network

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hargrove, Paul H.; Bonachea, Dan

2018-03-27

This document is a deliverable for milestone STPM17-6 of the Exascale Computing Project, delivered by WBS 2.3.1.14. It reports on the improvements in performance observed on Cray XC-series systems due to enhancements made to the GASNet-EX software. These enhancements, known as “specializations”, primarily consist of replacing network-independent implementations of several recently added features with implementations tailored to the Cray Aries network. Performance gains from specialization include (1) Negotiated-Payload Active Messages improve bandwidth of a ping-pong test by up to 14%, (2) Immediate Operations reduce running time of a synthetic benchmark by up to 93%, (3) non-bulk RMA Put bandwidth is increased by up to 32%, (4) Remote Atomic performance is 70% faster than the reference on a point-to-point test and allows a hot-spot test to scale robustly, and (5) non-contiguous RMA interfaces see up to 8.6x speedups for an intra-node benchmark and 26% for inter-node. These improvements are available in the GASNet-EX 2018.3.0 release.

Impaired Performance of Pressure-Retarded Osmosis due to Irreversible Biofouling.

Science.gov (United States)

Bar-Zeev, Edo; Perreault, François; Straub, Anthony P; Elimelech, Menachem

2015-11-03

Next-generation pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) approaches aim to harness the energy potential of streams with high salinity differences, such as wastewater effluent and seawater desalination plant brine. In this study, we evaluated biofouling propensity in PRO. Bench-scale experiments were carried out for 24 h using a model wastewater effluent feed solution and simulated seawater desalination brine pressurized to 24 bar. For biofouling tests, wastewater effluent was inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and artificial seawater desalination plant brine draw solution was seeded with Pseudoalteromonas atlantica. Our results indicate that biological growth in the feed wastewater stream channel severely fouled both the membrane support layer and feed spacer, resulting in ∼50% water flux decline. We also observed an increase in the pumping pressure required to force water through the spacer-filled feed channel, with pressure drop increasing from 6.4±0.8 bar m(-1) to 15.1±2.6 bar m(-1) due to spacer blockage from the developing biofilm. Neither the water flux decline nor the increased pressure drop in the feed channel could be reversed using a pressure-aided osmotic backwash. In contrast, biofouling in the seawater brine draw channel was negligible. Overall, the reduced performance due to water flux decline and increased pumping energy requirements from spacer blockage highlight the serious challenges of using high fouling potential feed sources in PRO, such as secondary wastewater effluent. We conclude that PRO power generation using wastewater effluent and seawater desalination plant brine may become possible only with rigorous pretreatment or new spacer and membrane designs.

Improving TCP Performance over Wireless Ad Hoc Networks with Busy Tone Assisted Scheme

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cai Lin

2006-01-01

Full Text Available It is well known that transmission control protocol (TCP performance degrades severely in IEEE 802.11-based wireless ad hoc networks. We first identify two critical issues leading to the TCP performance degradation: (1 unreliable broadcast, since broadcast frames are transmitted without the request-to-send and clear-to-send (RTS/CTS dialog and Data/ACK handshake, so they are vulnerable to the hidden terminal problem; and (2 false link failure which occurs when a node cannot successfully transmit data temporarily due to medium contention. We then propose a scheme to use a narrow-bandwidth, out-of-band busy tone channel to make reservation for broadcast and link error detection frames only. The proposed scheme is simple and power efficient, because only the sender needs to transmit two short messages in the busy tone channel before sending broadcast or link error detection frames in the data channel. Analytical results show that the proposed scheme can dramatically reduce the collision probability of broadcast and link error detection frames. Extensive simulations with different network topologies further demonstrate that the proposed scheme can improve TCP throughput by 23% to 150%, depending on user mobility, and effectively enhance both short-term and long-term fairness among coexisting TCP flows in multihop wireless ad hoc networks.

Risk of Performance Decrement and Crew Illness Due to an Inadequate Food System

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, Grace L.; Cooper, Maya; Bermudez-Aguirre, Daniela; Sirmons, Takiyah

2016-01-01

NASA is preparing for long duration manned missions beyond low-Earth orbit that will be challenged in several ways, including long-term exposure to the space environment, impacts to crew physiological and psychological health, limited resources, and no resupply. The food system is one of the most significant daily factors that can be altered to improve human health, and performance during space exploration. Therefore, the paramount importance of determining the methods, technologies, and requirements to provide a safe, nutritious, and acceptable food system that promotes crew health and performance cannot be underestimated. The processed and prepackaged food system is the main source of nutrition to the crew, therefore significant losses in nutrition, either through degradation of nutrients during processing and storage or inadequate food intake due to low acceptability, variety, or usability, may significantly compromise the crew's health and performance. Shelf life studies indicate that key nutrients and quality factors in many space foods degrade to concerning levels within three years, suggesting that food system will not meet the nutrition and acceptability requirements of a long duration mission beyond low-Earth orbit. Likewise, mass and volume evaluations indicate that the current food system is a significant resource burden. Alternative provisioning strategies, such as inclusion of bioregenerative foods, are challenged with resource requirements, and food safety and scarcity concerns. Ensuring provisioning of an adequate food system relies not only upon determining technologies, and requirements for nutrition, quality, and safety, but upon establishing a food system that will support nutritional adequacy, even with individual crew preference and self-selection. In short, the space food system is challenged to maintain safety, nutrition, and acceptability for all phases of an exploration mission within resource constraints. This document presents the

Performance of sulphate- and selenium-reducing biochemical reactors using different ratios of labile to recalcitrant organic materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirjafari, Parissa; Baldwin, Susan A

2015-01-01

Successful operation of sulphate-reducing bioreactors using complex organic materials depends on providing a balance between more easily degrading material that achieves reasonable kinetics and low hydraulic retention times, and more slowly decomposing material that sustains performance in the long term. In this study, two organic mixtures containing the same ingredients typical of bioreactors used at mine sites (woodchips, hay and cow manure) but with different ratios of wood (recalcitrant) to hay (labile) were tested in six continuous flow bioreactors treating synthetic mine-affected water containing 600 mg/L of sulphate and 15 μg/L of selenium. The reactors were operated for short (5-6 months) and long (435-450 days) periods of time at the same hydraulic retention time of 15 days. There were no differences in the performance of the bioreactors in terms of sulphate-reduction over the short term, but the wood-rich bioreactors experienced variable and sometimes unreliable sulphate-reduction over the long term. Presence of more hay in the organic mixture was able to better sustain reliable performance. Production of dissolved organic compounds due to biodegradation within the bioreactors was detected for the first 175-230 days, after which their depletion coincided with a crash phase observed in the wood-rich bioreactors only.

The ability of familiarity, disruption, and the relative strength of nonenvironmental context cues to explain unreliable environmental-context-dependent memory effects in free recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Rutherford, A

2000-12-01

The ability of environmental-context (EC) familiarity, movement disruption, and the relative strength of memory cues to explain unreliable EC-dependent free-recall memory effects was examined in two experiments. Experiment 1 replicated Smith's (1979, Experiment 1) results confirming that familiarity and disruption cannot account for free-recall EC-reinstatement effects. In Experiment 2, a level of processing manipulation varied stimulus item memory cue strengths, and memory was again assessed by free recall. Contrary to Murnane and Phelps's (1995) and Dougal and Rotello's (1999) recognition findings, an EC-reinstatement effect was observed with low, but not high, levels of processing. However, comparisons across the two experiments revealed inconsistencies with the relative cue strength hypothesis. Consequently, a variant of the relative cue strength hypothesis that highlights the role of retrieval processes was proposed to explain the interaction between the levels of processing and the EC-reinstatement effect.

Elucidating the Performance Limitations of Lithium-ion Batteries due to Species and Charge Transport through Five Characteristic Parameters

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Fangming; Peng, Peng

2016-01-01

Underutilization due to performance limitations imposed by species and charge transports is one of the key issues that persist with various lithium-ion batteries. To elucidate the relevant mechanisms, two groups of characteristic parameters were proposed. The first group contains three characteristic time parameters, namely: (1) te, which characterizes the Li-ion transport rate in the electrolyte phase, (2) ts, characterizing the lithium diffusion rate in the solid active materials, and (3) tc, describing the local Li-ion depletion rate in electrolyte phase at the electrolyte/electrode interface due to electrochemical reactions. The second group contains two electric resistance parameters: Re and Rs, which represent respectively, the equivalent ionic transport resistance and the effective electronic transport resistance in the electrode. Electrochemical modeling and simulations to the discharge process of LiCoO2 cells reveal that: (1) if te, ts and tc are on the same order of magnitude, the species transports may not cause any performance limitations to the battery; (2) the underlying mechanisms of performance limitations due to thick electrode, high-rate operation, and large-sized active material particles as well as effects of charge transports are revealed. The findings may be used as quantitative guidelines in the development and design of more advanced Li-ion batteries. PMID:27599870

Effect of dewatering on seismic performance of multi-anchor wall due to high ground water level

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Makoto; Miura, Kinya; Konami, Takeharu; Hayashi, Taketo; Sato, Hiroki

2017-10-01

Previous research reported that the ground water in the backfill of reinforced soil wall made it deteriorate. According to the damage investigation of Great East Earthquake 2011, the reinforced soil structure due to high ground water level by seismic wave were deformed remarkably. Some of them classified ultimate limit state or restorability limit state. However, more than 90% of reinforced soil structure, which suffered from this earthquake, were classified into no damage condition. Therefore, it is necessary that the seismic behaviors of multi-anchor wall due to seepage flow should be clarified in order to adopt the performance-based design in such reinforced soil structure. In this study, a series of centrifugal shaking table tests were conducted to investigate the seismic behavior of multi-anchor wall due to high ground water level. The reinforced drainage pipes were installed into the backfill in order to verify the dewatering effect and additional reinforcement. Furthermore, to check only the dewatering effect, the model tests was carried out with several ground water table that was modeled the case reinforced drainage pipes installed. The test results show unique behavior of reinforced region that moved integrally. This implies that the reinforced region has been behaved as if it became one mass, and this behavior make this structure increase seismic performance. Thus, the effectiveness of dewatering was observed remarkably because of decreasing the inertial force during earthquake.

A calculus for quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielson, Hanne Riis; Nielson, Flemming; Vigo, Roberto

2013-01-01

for default behaviour in case the ideal behaviour fails due to unreliable communication and thereby to increase the quality of service offered by the systems. The development is facilitated by a SAT-based robustness analysis to determine whether or not the code is vulnerable to unreliable communication......A main challenge of programming component-based software is to ensure that the components continue to behave in a reasonable manner even when communication becomes unreliable. We propose a process calculus, the Quality Calculus, for programming software components where it becomes natural to plan...

Human factors assessment of conflict resolution aid reliability and time pressure in future air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Trapsilawati, Fitri; Qu, Xingda; Wickens, Chris D; Chen, Chun-Hsien

2015-01-01

Though it has been reported that air traffic controllers' (ATCos') performance improves with the aid of a conflict resolution aid (CRA), the effects of imperfect automation on CRA are so far unknown. The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of imperfect automation on conflict resolution. Twelve students with ATC knowledge were instructed to complete ATC tasks in four CRA conditions including reliable, unreliable and high time pressure, unreliable and low time pressure, and manual conditions. Participants were able to resolve the designated conflicts more accurately and faster in the reliable versus unreliable CRA conditions. When comparing the unreliable CRA and manual conditions, unreliable CRA led to better conflict resolution performance and higher situation awareness. Surprisingly, high time pressure triggered better conflict resolution performance as compared to the low time pressure condition. The findings from the present study highlight the importance of CRA in future ATC operations. Practitioner Summary: Conflict resolution aid (CRA) is a proposed automation decision aid in air traffic control (ATC). It was found in the present study that CRA was able to promote air traffic controllers' performance even when it was not perfectly reliable. These findings highlight the importance of CRA in future ATC operations.

Evidence Report: Risk of Performance Errors Due to Training Deficiencies

Science.gov (United States)

Barshi, Immanuel; Dempsey, Donna L.

2016-01-01

Substantial evidence supports the claim that inadequate training leads to performance errors. Barshi and Loukopoulos (2012) demonstrate that even a task as carefully developed and refined over many years as operating an aircraft can be significantly improved by a systematic analysis, followed by improved procedures and improved training (see also Loukopoulos, Dismukes, & Barshi, 2009a). Unfortunately, such a systematic analysis of training needs rarely occurs during the preliminary design phase, when modifications are most feasible. Training is often seen as a way to compensate for deficiencies in task and system design, which in turn increases the training load. As a result, task performance often suffers, and with it, the operators suffer and so does the mission. On the other hand, effective training can indeed compensate for such design deficiencies, and can even go beyond to compensate for failures of our imagination to anticipate all that might be needed when we send our crew members to go where no one else has gone before. Much of the research literature on training is motivated by current training practices aimed at current training needs. Although there is some experience with operations in extreme environments on Earth, there is no experience with long-duration space missions where crews must practice semi-autonomous operations, where ground support must accommodate significant communication delays, and where so little is known about the environment. Thus, we must develop robust methodologies and tools to prepare our crews for the unknown. The research necessary to support such an endeavor does not currently exist, but existing research does reveal general challenges that are relevant to long-duration, high-autonomy missions. The evidence presented here describes issues related to the risk of performance errors due to training deficiencies. Contributing factors regarding training deficiencies may pertain to organizational process and training programs for

Performance of Group Communication Over Ad-Hoc Networks

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Mosko, Marc; Garcia-Luna-Aceves, J. J

2002-01-01

... through a network of cluster trees, where a spanning tree joins groups of fully connected nodes. Through numerical analysis and simulations in GloMoSim, we show throughput, goodput, and loss rates for reliable and unreliable networks...

Performance Evaluation of Concurrent Multipath Video Streaming in Multihomed Mobile Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Nightingale

2013-01-01

Full Text Available High-quality real-time video streaming to users in mobile networks is challenging due to the dynamically changing nature of the network paths, particularly the limited bandwidth and varying end-to-end delay. In this paper, we empirically investigate the performance of multipath streaming in the context of multihomed mobile networks. Existing schemes that make use of the aggregated bandwidth of multiple paths can overcome bandwidth limitations on a single path but suffer an efficiency penalty caused by retransmission of lost packets in reliable transport schemes or path switching overheads in unreliable transport schemes. This work focuses on the evaluation of schemes to permit concurrent use of multiple paths to deliver video streams. A comprehensive streaming framework for concurrent multipath video streaming is proposed and experimentally evaluated, using current state-of-the-art H.264 Scalable Video Coding (H.264/SVC and the next generation High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC standards. It provides a valuable insight into the benefit of using such schemes in conjunction with encoder specific packet prioritisation mechanisms for quality-aware packet scheduling and scalable streaming. The remaining obstacles to deployment of concurrent multipath schemes are identified, and the challenges in realising HEVC based concurrent multipath streaming are highlighted.

Worthy of His Sufferings: How Strategic Leaders Learned from Failure

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-01

his career during America’s war with Mexico . In the course of the war, the accidental soldier proved to be a steady, introspective, yet aggressive...calm deportment under fire. Grant’s performance in Mexico earned him a reputation as a “man of fire” among his fellow soldiers, but more importantly...terrain, weather, unreliable logistics and a cholera outbreak. Even though many dependants died during the journey due to these circumstances

River-bed erosion due to changing boundary conditions: performance of a protective measure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Termini

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Due to the introduction of man-made sediment barriers along a river, the amount of sediment load entering the downstream river reach is different to that leaving the reach, and erosion processes occur downstream of the barrier itself. Designers are often required to take into account the scouring process and to include adequate protective measures against the local scour. This paper addresses the performance of bio-engineering protective measures against the erosion process. In particular, a green carpet, realized with real flexible vegetation, has been used as the protective measure against erosion processes downstream of a rigid bed. Analyses are based on experimental work carried out in a straight channel constructed at the laboratory of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aereospaziale, dei Materiali, Palermo University (Italy.

Fault-tolerant search algorithms reliable computation with unreliable information

CERN Document Server

Cicalese, Ferdinando

2013-01-01

Why a book on fault-tolerant search algorithms? Searching is one of the fundamental problems in computer science. Time and again algorithmic and combinatorial issues originally studied in the context of search find application in the most diverse areas of computer science and discrete mathematics. On the other hand, fault-tolerance is a necessary ingredient of computing. Due to their inherent complexity, information systems are naturally prone to errors, which may appear at any level - as imprecisions in the data, bugs in the software, or transient or permanent hardware failures. This book pr

Independent Review of Mitigating System Performance Indicator Reporting in the EPIX Database

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wierman, Thomas Edward [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2009-05-01

This report summarizes work done to verify the component, failure mode, and method of detection information provided in the Equipment Performance Information Exchange (EPIX) to support implementation of Mitigating Systems Performance Indices. This task is to select reports from EPIX and determine if their categorization as MSPI or non-MSPI failures is consistent with the development of unreliability baseline failure rates, and whether this significantly affects estimates of plant risk. This review is of all MSPI devices in EPIX that were reported as failures. The components include emergency generators; motor-driven, turbine-driven, and enginedriven pumps; and air and motor-operated valves. The date range for this report includes all MSPI device reported failures from 2003 to the most current EPIX data at the INL (up to the 3rd quarter 2008).

Changes in decibel scale wavelength properties of EEG with alertness levels while performing sustained attention tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Arjunan, Sridhar P; Kumar, Dinesh K; Jung, Tzyy-Ping

2009-01-01

Loss of alertness can have dire consequences for people controlling motorized equipment or for people in professions such as defense. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is known to be related to alertness of the person, but due to high level of noise and low signal strength, the use of EEG for such applications has been considered to be unreliable. This study reports the fractal analysis of EEG and identifies the use of maximum fractal length (MFL) as a feature that is inversely correlated with the alertness of the subject. The results show that MFL (of only single channel of EEG) indicates the loss of alertness of the individual with mean (inverse) correlation coefficient = 0.82.

Quantification of the flow measurement performance due to installation changes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ferreira, Ana Luisa Auler da Silva [Petrobras Transporte S.A. (TRANSPETRO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2012-07-01

The objective is to present a criterion to identify and quantify improvements in the performance of flowmeters due to alterations in the design of a measurement system. The method was developed aiming at improvements in the operational systems, but is also useful in custody transfer systems. Take as base the estimate of uncertainty in the measurement systems, and seek a more intuitive way so as to aggregate the experience and knowledge available in the company. The identification of the measurand is carried out based on available information, the processing of data and the method of calculation. The improvements in the installation of measurement systems are given priority based on the measurement uncertainty of the CTPL (temperature and pressure correction factor) and the MF(meter factor). In the case of the CTPL, the influence of the pressure, temperature and density instruments in the results of the measurement system is evaluated, and in the case of the MF, the influence of the calibration system. The possibilities for calibrating the flowmeter in industry are presented, also detailing the calibration of the operational meter against custody transfer systems. The analysis of networks includes calculating the uncertainty in the closing of the network balance, calculation of the uncertainties and contributions of the measurement systems that form part of the network, and a comparison of improvements and costs, calculation for each alteration in the design of the measurement system, and its cost per improvement of 0.01% in the uncertainty of the closing. (author)

At Home in Service Discovery

OpenAIRE

Sundramoorthy, V.

2006-01-01

Modern computer systems (since 1950s) evolved from being bulky, unreliable and expensive, to being tiny, reliable, cheaper and faster. Improvements in size, expense and performance was due to the evolution in computer hardware; from vacuum tubes, magnetic tapes, integrated circuits, to very large-scale integration (VLSI) of thousands of transistors and other circuit elements onto a single chip. The drop in cost and size led to the introduction of personal computers (PCs) for use in office, sc...

Self-organized computation with unreliable, memristive nanodevices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Snider, G S

2007-01-01

Nanodevices have terrible properties for building Boolean logic systems: high defect rates, high variability, high death rates, drift, and (for the most part) only two terminals. Economical assembly requires that they be dynamical. We argue that strategies aimed at mitigating these limitations, such as defect avoidance/reconfiguration, or applying coding theory to circuit design, present severe scalability and reliability challenges. We instead propose to mitigate device shortcomings and exploit their dynamical character by building self-organizing, self-healing networks that implement massively parallel computations. The key idea is to exploit memristive nanodevice behavior to cheaply implement adaptive, recurrent networks, useful for complex pattern recognition problems. Pulse-based communication allows the designer to make trade-offs between power consumption and processing speed. Self-organization sidesteps the scalability issues of characterization, compilation and configuration. Network dynamics supplies a graceful response to device death. We present simulation results of such a network-a self-organized spatial filter array-that demonstrate its performance as a function of defects and device variation

A Biosphere Assessment: Influence due to Geosphere-Biosphere Interfaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Youn Myoung; Hwang, Yong Soo

2009-01-01

Recently the geosphere-biosphere interfaces (GBIs), which is recognized as a zone (GBIZ) beyond the simple conceptual boundaries between the geosphere and biosphere modeling domains for safety assessment, has been raised to an important issue for the biosphere assessment. For the licensing process of the repository, the final step of a series of safety and performance assessment should be concerned how nuclides released from the geological media could make their farther transfer in the biosphere giving rise to doses to humans. Unlike in the case of geosphere, the distinct characteristics of biosphere modeling includes the potential release and subsequent exposure taking place not in the near future with rather unreliable predictions of human behavior at the time of its release. And also unlike the near- and far-field of geospheres such as near field engineering structures and natural geological media, the biosphere is not conceived as a barrier itself that could be well designed or optimized, which always causes the necessity of site-specific modeling approach as much as possible. Through every step of whole geosphere and biosphere modeling, nuclides transport from various geological media to the biosphere over the GBI, biosphere modeling can be done independently, not even knowing what happens in the geosphere, making access possible to it in a separate manner, even though, to some extent, it might somehow need to be accounted for geosphere transport, as is similarly being currently done in many other countries. In general, to show the performance of the repository, dose exposure to the critical group due to nuclide release from the repository should be evaluated and the results compared to the risk or dose presented by regulatory bodies, as safety and performance criteria for HLW repository are usually expressed in terms of quantitative risk or dose. For a real site-specific treatment and incorporation of geological features such as aquifers into the biosphere

A study on the flow field and local heat transfer performance due to geometric scaling of centrifugal fans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stafford, Jason; Walsh, Ed; Egan, Vanessa

2011-01-01

Highlights: ► Velocity field and local heat transfer trends of centrifugal fans. ► Time-averaged vortices are generated by flow separation. ► Local vortex and impingement regions are evident on surface heat transfer maps. ► Miniature centrifugal fans should be designed with an aspect ratio below 0.3. ► Theory under predicts heat transfer due to complex, unsteady outlet flow. - Abstract: Scaled versions of fan designs are often chosen to address thermal management issues in space constrained applications. Using velocity field and local heat transfer measurement techniques, the thermal performance characteristics of a range of geometrically scaled centrifugal fan designs have been investigated. Complex fluid flow structures and surface heat transfer trends due to centrifugal fans were found to be common over a wide range of fan aspect ratios (blade height to fan diameter). The limiting aspect ratio for heat transfer enhancement was 0.3, as larger aspect ratios were shown to result in a reduction in overall thermal performance. Over the range of fans examined, the low profile centrifugal designs produced significant enhancement in thermal performance when compared to that predicted using classical laminar flow theory. The limiting non-dimensional distance from the fan, where this enhancement is no longer apparent, has also been determined. Using the fundamental information inferred from local velocity field and heat transfer measurements, selection criteria can be determined for both low and high power practical applications where space restrictions exist.

Accounting for results: how conservation organizations report performance information.

Science.gov (United States)

Rissman, Adena R; Smail, Robert

2015-04-01

Environmental program performance information is in high demand, but little research suggests why conservation organizations differ in reporting performance information. We compared performance measurement and reporting by four private-land conservation organizations: Partners for Fish and Wildlife in the US Fish and Wildlife Service (national government), Forest Stewardship Council-US (national nonprofit organization), Land and Water Conservation Departments (local government), and land trusts (local nonprofit organization). We asked: (1) How did the pattern of performance reporting relationships vary across organizations? (2) Was political conflict among organizations' principals associated with greater performance information? and (3) Did performance information provide evidence of program effectiveness? Based on our typology of performance information, we found that most organizations reported output measures such as land area or number of contracts, some reported outcome indicators such as adherence to performance standards, but few modeled or measured environmental effects. Local government Land and Water Conservation Departments reported the most types of performance information, while local land trusts reported the fewest. The case studies suggest that governance networks influence the pattern and type of performance reporting, that goal conflict among principles is associated with greater performance information, and that performance information provides unreliable causal evidence of program effectiveness. Challenging simple prescriptions to generate more data as evidence, this analysis suggests (1) complex institutional and political contexts for environmental program performance and (2) the need to supplement performance measures with in-depth evaluations that can provide causal inferences about program effectiveness.

Capillary refill time is an unreliable indicator of cardiovascular status in term neonates.

Science.gov (United States)

LeFlore, Judy L; Engle, William D

2005-06-01

between HR and CRT. There was a moderate, direct relationship between BP and CRT observed in the following anatomic sites: (1) sternum/extended pressure and systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP, and mean BP (r = 0.35, P = 0.02; r = 0.49, P = 0.001; and r = 0.43, P = 0.005, respectively); (2) sternum/brief pressure and SBP (r = 0.31, P = 0.05); and (3) finger/extended pressure and SBP (r = 0.30, P = 0.05). An unanticipated moderate, direct correlation between BP and CRT was observed; prolongation of CRT occurred with elevated blood pressure. This finding may have been secondary to increased circulating vasoactive substances in the newborn period; measurement of these substances was beyond the scope of this study. In addition, CRT was highly dependent on the duration of cutaneous pressure, regardless of the site. These 2 findings indicate that CRT may be an unreliable indicator of cardiovascular status in the term neonate during the first 4 hours after birth.

Supply chain solutions to improve the distribution of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to clinics in rural areas: A case study of the QwaQwa district

OpenAIRE

Mokheseng, Mamolise; Horn, Gideon S.; Klopper, Aileen G.

2017-01-01

This article serves as a case study based on research that was performed in the QwaQwa district in the Free State Province where the distribution of ARVs to the regional Manapo hospital, as well as between the hospital and its peripheral clinics, was interrupted and inconsistent due to problems in the supply chain. An unreliable and interrupted ARV supply chain creates the risk of virus reactivation and eventual patient mortality. The objectives of the study were to explore the problems e...

A study on the flow field and local heat transfer performance due to geometric scaling of centrifugal fans

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stafford, Jason, E-mail: jason.stafford@ul.ie [Stokes Institute, Mechanical, Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Limerick, Limerick (Ireland); Walsh, Ed; Egan, Vanessa [Stokes Institute, Mechanical, Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Limerick, Limerick (Ireland)

2011-12-15

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Velocity field and local heat transfer trends of centrifugal fans. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Time-averaged vortices are generated by flow separation. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Local vortex and impingement regions are evident on surface heat transfer maps. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Miniature centrifugal fans should be designed with an aspect ratio below 0.3. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Theory under predicts heat transfer due to complex, unsteady outlet flow. - Abstract: Scaled versions of fan designs are often chosen to address thermal management issues in space constrained applications. Using velocity field and local heat transfer measurement techniques, the thermal performance characteristics of a range of geometrically scaled centrifugal fan designs have been investigated. Complex fluid flow structures and surface heat transfer trends due to centrifugal fans were found to be common over a wide range of fan aspect ratios (blade height to fan diameter). The limiting aspect ratio for heat transfer enhancement was 0.3, as larger aspect ratios were shown to result in a reduction in overall thermal performance. Over the range of fans examined, the low profile centrifugal designs produced significant enhancement in thermal performance when compared to that predicted using classical laminar flow theory. The limiting non-dimensional distance from the fan, where this enhancement is no longer apparent, has also been determined. Using the fundamental information inferred from local velocity field and heat transfer measurements, selection criteria can be determined for both low and high power practical applications where space restrictions exist.

Maximizing Statistical Power When Verifying Probabilistic Forecasts of Hydrometeorological Events

Science.gov (United States)

DeChant, C. M.; Moradkhani, H.

2014-12-01

Hydrometeorological events (i.e. floods, droughts, precipitation) are increasingly being forecasted probabilistically, owing to the uncertainties in the underlying causes of the phenomenon. In these forecasts, the probability of the event, over some lead time, is estimated based on some model simulations or predictive indicators. By issuing probabilistic forecasts, agencies may communicate the uncertainty in the event occurring. Assuming that the assigned probability of the event is correct, which is referred to as a reliable forecast, the end user may perform some risk management based on the potential damages resulting from the event. Alternatively, an unreliable forecast may give false impressions of the actual risk, leading to improper decision making when protecting resources from extreme events. Due to this requisite for reliable forecasts to perform effective risk management, this study takes a renewed look at reliability assessment in event forecasts. Illustrative experiments will be presented, showing deficiencies in the commonly available approaches (Brier Score, Reliability Diagram). Overall, it is shown that the conventional reliability assessment techniques do not maximize the ability to distinguish between a reliable and unreliable forecast. In this regard, a theoretical formulation of the probabilistic event forecast verification framework will be presented. From this analysis, hypothesis testing with the Poisson-Binomial distribution is the most exact model available for the verification framework, and therefore maximizes one's ability to distinguish between a reliable and unreliable forecast. Application of this verification system was also examined within a real forecasting case study, highlighting the additional statistical power provided with the use of the Poisson-Binomial distribution.

PERFORMANCE DETERIORATION OF THERMOSIPHON SOLAR FLAT PLATE WATER HEATER DUE TO SCALING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

arunachala umesh chandavar

2011-12-01

Full Text Available 0 0 1 340 1943 International Islamic University 16 4 2279 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} The performance of Flat plate Solar Water Heater deteriorates within five to twelve years of their installation due to factors related to manufacturing, operating conditions, lack of maintenance etc. Especially, problem due to scaling is significant as it is based on quality of water used. The remaining factors are system dependent and could be overcome by quality production. Software is developed by incorporating Hottel Whillier Bliss (H-W-B equation to ascertain the effect of scaling on system efficiency in case of thermosiphon system. In case of clean thermosiphon system, the instantaneous efficiency calculated at 1000 W/m2 radiation is 72 % and it drops to 46 % for 3.7 mm scale thickness. The mass flow rate is reduced by 90 % for 3.7 mm scale thickness. Whereas, the average temperature drop of water in the tank is not critical due to considerable heat content in water under severe scaled condition.  But practically in case of major scale growth, some of the risers are likely to get blocked completely which leads to negligible temperature rise in the tank. ABSTRAK: Prestasi plat rata pemanas air suria merosot selepas lima hingga dua belas tahun  pemasangannya disebabkan faktor-faktor yang berkaitan dengan pembuatannya, cara kendaliannya, kurangnya penyelenggaraan dan sebagainya.  Terutama sekali, masalah disebabkan scaling (tembunan endapan mineral perlu diambil berat kerana ianya bergantung kepada kualiti air yang digunakan. Faktor-faktor selebihya bersandarkan sistem dan ia

Scalable High Performance Message Passing over InfiniBand for Open MPI

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Friedley, A; Hoefler, T; Leininger, M L; Lumsdaine, A

2007-10-24

InfiniBand (IB) is a popular network technology for modern high-performance computing systems. MPI implementations traditionally support IB using a reliable, connection-oriented (RC) transport. However, per-process resource usage that grows linearly with the number of processes, makes this approach prohibitive for large-scale systems. IB provides an alternative in the form of a connectionless unreliable datagram transport (UD), which allows for near-constant resource usage and initialization overhead as the process count increases. This paper describes a UD-based implementation for IB in Open MPI as a scalable alternative to existing RC-based schemes. We use the software reliability capabilities of Open MPI to provide the guaranteed delivery semantics required by MPI. Results show that UD not only requires fewer resources at scale, but also allows for shorter MPI startup times. A connectionless model also improves performance for applications that tend to send small messages to many different processes.

Percutaneous vertebroplasty performed with an 18 G needle for the treatment of severe compression fracture of cervical vertebral body due to malignancy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Long; Ni Caifang; Wang Zhentang; Liu Yizhi; Jin Yonghai; Zhu Xiaoli; Zou Jianwei; Xiao Xiangsheng

2010-01-01

Objective: To investigate the clinical feasibility and efficacy of percutaneous vertebroplasty performed with an 18G needle for the treatment of severe compression fracture of cervical vertebral body due to malignancy. Methods: During the period of 2006-2010 percutaneous vertebroplasty was performed in 10 patients with severe compression fracture of cervical vertebral body due to metastatic lesions. A total of 12 diseased vertebral bodies were detected, which distributed in the C 4 (n = 3), C 5 (n = 3), C 6 (n = 4) and C 7 (n = 2) vertebral bodies. Under DSA guidance an 18G needle was punctured into the target vertebral body and then polymethylmethacrylate bone cement was injected in. A follow-up lasting for one month was conducted. Results: The technical success of both needle puncturing and bone cement injection was achieved in all patients. The mean amount of bone cement injected in each diseased vertebra was 2.2 ml(1.5-3.2)ml. Marked pain relief was quickly obtained in al1 10 patients. No major complications occurred in this series, except for asymptomatic bone cement leaking around vertebra which appeared in 4 vertebral bodies. Conclusion: Percutaneous vertebroplasty, which is performed with an 18G needle, is a safe and effective technique for the treatment of severe compression fracture of cervical vertebral body due to malignancy. (authors)

Approximate zero-variance Monte Carlo estimation of Markovian unreliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delcoux, J.L.; Labeau, P.E.; Devooght, J.

1997-01-01

Monte Carlo simulation has become an important tool for the estimation of reliability characteristics, since conventional numerical methods are no more efficient when the size of the system to solve increases. However, evaluating by a simulation the probability of occurrence of very rare events means playing a very large number of histories of the system, which leads to unacceptable computation times. Acceleration and variance reduction techniques have to be worked out. We show in this paper how to write the equations of Markovian reliability as a transport problem, and how the well known zero-variance scheme can be adapted to this application. But such a method is always specific to the estimation of one quality, while a Monte Carlo simulation allows to perform simultaneously estimations of diverse quantities. Therefore, the estimation of one of them could be made more accurate while degrading at the same time the variance of other estimations. We propound here a method to reduce simultaneously the variance for several quantities, by using probability laws that would lead to zero-variance in the estimation of a mean of these quantities. Just like the zero-variance one, the method we propound is impossible to perform exactly. However, we show that simple approximations of it may be very efficient. (author)

The impact of B1+ correction on MP2RAGE cortical T1 and apparent cortical thickness at 7T

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haast, Roy A M; Ivanov, Dimo; Uludağ, Kâmil

2018-01-01

Determination of cortical thickness using MRI has often been criticized due to the presence of various error sources. Specifically, anatomical MRI relying on T1 contrast may be unreliable due to spatially variable image contrast between gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid

Determining Composite Validity Coefficients for Army Jobs and Job Families

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Zeidner, Joseph

2002-01-01

.... These correlation coefficients are corrected, first, for unreliability of the criterion and, then, for restriction in range effects due to assignment from an Army input population to MOS samples...

On Irony in the Performance%论演出中的反讽

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

胡一伟

2016-01-01

Because of its complexity,the researches on irony mainly concentrate in the medium of language. Once involved in cross-media concept of irony,the situation is more complicated. This paper will choose a kind of multi-mediatext———performances of narration,and try to discuss the i-rony mechanismof this genre. In addition,for the rhetoric way of irony has a special relationship with the way of narrative,especially in unreliable narration,this paper will combine the reliabilitynarra-tionfromthe local irony and reliable narrative,the most part of irony and unreliable narration to dis-cussthe irony mechanism.%由于反讽表意机制的复杂性，人们对反讽问题的诸多研究主要集中在语言媒介方面，一旦涉及跨媒介的概念反讽，情况更为复杂。现从演示类叙述———演出这类多媒介的符号文本出发，论演出体裁的反讽表意方式，对多媒介的反讽研究略作尝试。另外，由于反讽这一修辞方式与叙述学之间有着特殊的关系，结合叙述的可靠性等情况，从局部反讽与可靠叙述，大局面反讽与不可靠叙述两方面展开论述。

Selective social learning in infancy: looking for mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Crivello, Cristina; Phillips, Sara; Poulin-Dubois, Diane

2018-05-01

Although there is mounting evidence that selective social learning begins in infancy, the psychological mechanisms underlying this ability are currently a controversial issue. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether theory of mind abilities and statistical learning skills are related to infants' selective social learning. Seventy-seven 18-month-olds were first exposed to a reliable or an unreliable speaker and then completed a word learning task, two theory of mind tasks, and a statistical learning task. If domain-general abilities are linked to selective social learning, then infants who demonstrate superior performance on the statistical learning task should perform better on the selective learning task, that is, should be less likely to learn words from an unreliable speaker. Alternatively, if domain-specific abilities are involved, then superior performance on theory of mind tasks should be related to selective learning performance. Findings revealed that, as expected, infants were more likely to learn a novel word from a reliable speaker. Importantly, infants who passed a theory of mind task assessing knowledge attribution were significantly less likely to learn a novel word from an unreliable speaker compared to infants who failed this task. No such effect was observed for the other tasks. These results suggest that infants who possess superior social-cognitive abilities are more apt to reject an unreliable speaker as informant. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/zuuCniHYzqo. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Modeling the Deterioration of Engine and Low Pressure Compressor Performance During a Roll Back Event Due to Ice Accretion

Science.gov (United States)

Veres, Joseph P.; Jorgenson, Philip, C. E.; Jones, Scott M.

2014-01-01

The main focus of this study is to apply a computational tool for the flow analysis of the engine that has been tested with ice crystal ingestion in the Propulsion Systems Laboratory (PSL) of NASA Glenn Research Center. A data point was selected for analysis during which the engine experienced a full roll back event due to the ice accretion on the blades and flow path of the low pressure compressor. The computational tool consists of the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) engine system thermodynamic cycle code, and an Euler-based compressor flow analysis code, that has an ice particle melt estimation code with the capability of determining the rate of sublimation, melting, and evaporation through the compressor blade rows. Decreasing the performance characteristics of the low pressure compressor (LPC) within the NPSS cycle analysis resulted in matching the overall engine performance parameters measured during testing at data points in short time intervals through the progression of the roll back event. Detailed analysis of the fan-core and LPC with the compressor flow analysis code simulated the effects of ice accretion by increasing the aerodynamic blockage and pressure losses through the low pressure compressor until achieving a match with the NPSS cycle analysis results, at each scan. With the additional blockages and losses in the LPC, the compressor flow analysis code results were able to numerically reproduce the performance that was determined by the NPSS cycle analysis, which was in agreement with the PSL engine test data. The compressor flow analysis indicated that the blockage due to ice accretion in the LPC exit guide vane stators caused the exit guide vane (EGV) to be nearly choked, significantly reducing the air flow rate into the core. This caused the LPC to eventually be in stall due to increasing levels of diffusion in the rotors and high incidence angles in the inlet guide vane (IGV) and EGV stators. The flow analysis indicating

Similar reliability and equivalent performance of female and male mice in the open field and water‐maze place navigation task

Science.gov (United States)

Fritz, Ann‐Kristina; Amrein, Irmgard

2017-01-01

Although most nervous system diseases affect women and men differentially, most behavioral studies using mouse models do not include subjects of both sexes. Many researchers worry that data of female mice may be unreliable due to the estrous cycle. Here, we retrospectively evaluated sex effects on coefficient of variation (CV) in 5,311 mice which had performed the same place navigation protocol in the water‐maze and in 4,554 mice tested in the same open field arena. Confidence intervals for Cohen's d as measure of effect size were computed and tested for equivalence with 0.2 as equivalence margin. Despite the large sample size, only few behavioral parameters showed a significant sex effect on CV. Confidence intervals of effect size indicated that CV was either equivalent or showed a small sex difference at most, accounting for less than 2% of total group to group variation of CV. While female mice were potentially slightly more variable in water‐maze acquisition and in the open field, males tended to perform less reliably in the water‐maze probe trial. In addition to evaluating variability, we also directly compared mean performance of female and male mice and found them to be equivalent in both water‐maze place navigation and open field exploration. Our data confirm and extend other large scale studies in demonstrating that including female mice in experiments does not cause a relevant increase of data variability. Our results make a strong case for including mice of both sexes whenever open field or water‐maze are used in preclinical research. PMID:28654717

Factors influencing reliability of liver stiffness measurements using transient elastography (M-probe)—Monocentric experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Şirli, Roxana, E-mail: roxanasirli@gmail.com; Sporea, Ioan, E-mail: isporea@umft.ro; Bota, Simona, E-mail: bota_simona1982@yahoo.com; Jurchiş, Ana, E-mail: ana.jurchis@yahoo.com

2013-08-15

Aim: To retrospectively assess the feasibility of transient elastography (TE) and the factors associated with failed and unreliable liver stiffness measurements (LSMs), in patients with chronic liver diseases. Material and methods: Our retrospective study included 8218 consecutive adult patients with suspected chronic liver diseases. In each patient, LSMs were performed with a FibroScan{sup ®} device (Echosens, France), with the M probe. Failure of TE measurements was defined if no valid measurement was obtained after at least 10 shots and unreliable if fewer than 10 valid shots were obtained, success rate (SR) <60% and/or interquartile range interval/median value (IQR/Med) ≥30%. Results: From the 8218 patients, failed and unreliable LSMs were observed in 29.2% of cases. In univariant analysis, the following risk factors were associated with failed and unreliable measurements: age over 50 years (OR 2.04; 95%CI 1.84–2.26), female gender (OR 1.32; 95%CI 1.20–1.45), BMI > 27.7 kg/m{sup 2} (OR 2.89, 95%CI 2.62–3.19), weight > 77 kg (OR 2.17; 95%CI 1.97–2.40) and height < 162 cm (OR 1.26; 95%CI 1.14–1.40). In multivariate analysis all the factors mentioned above were independently associated with the risk of failed and unreliable measurements. If all the negative predictive factors were present (woman, older than 50 years, with BMI > 27.7 kg/m{sup 2}, heavier than 77 kg and shorter than 162 cm), the rate of failed and unreliable measurements was 58.5%. In obese patients (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m{sup 2}), the rate of failed and unreliable measurements was 49.5%. Conclusion: Failed and unreliable LSMs were observed in 29.1% of patients. Female gender, older age, higher BMI, higher weight and smaller height were significantly associated with failed and unreliable LSMs.

Evaluation of sealing performance of metal cask subjected to vertical impact load due to aircraft engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Namba, Kosuke; Shirai, Koji; Saegusa, Toshiari

2010-01-01

To confirm the sealing performance of a metal cask subjected to impact force due to commercial aircraft crash against a spent fuel storage facility, a vertical impact test was carried out. In this test, a simplified deformable missile was used by considering the rigidity of the actual aircraft engine and accelerated to the specified impact velocity (60 m/s) to hit the full-scale lid structure with the primary and secondary lids. Then, the leak rate, the inner pressure between the lids, and the displacement of the lids were measured. The leak rate of the secondary lid exceeded 1.0x10 -3 Pa·m 3 /s upon impact. However, because no residual lid opening displacement occurred after loading, the leak rate recovered to less than 1.0x10 -6 Pa·m 3 /s after 3 h from the impact test. In addition, to clarify the impact behaviour of the lid structure, the impact analysis using the LS-DYNA code was executed. It was found that the lid bolts maintained the good tightening force after impact loading, and the sealing performance of the full-scale metal cask would not be affected immediately by the vertical impact of the aircraft engine with a speed of 60 m/s. (author)

Effects of Automation Types on Air Traffic Controller Situation Awareness and Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Sethumadhavan, A.

2009-01-01

The Joint Planning and Development Office has proposed the introduction of automated systems to help air traffic controllers handle the increasing volume of air traffic in the next two decades (JPDO, 2007). Because fully automated systems leave operators out of the decision-making loop (e.g., Billings, 1991), it is important to determine the right level and type of automation that will keep air traffic controllers in the loop. This study examined the differences in the situation awareness (SA) and collision detection performance of individuals when they worked with information acquisition, information analysis, decision and action selection and action implementation automation to control air traffic (Parasuraman, Sheridan, & Wickens, 2000). When the automation was unreliable, the time taken to detect an upcoming collision was significantly longer for all the automation types compared with the information acquisition automation. This poor performance following automation failure was mediated by SA, with lower SA yielding poor performance. Thus, the costs associated with automation failure are greater when automation is applied to higher order stages of information processing. Results have practical implications for automation design and development of SA training programs.

Injury due to thorotrast

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mori, Takesaburo

1976-01-01

A synthetic study was performed on some of those to whom Thorotrast had been injected, in Japan. In the epidemiological study of 147 war woundeds to whom Thorotrast had been injected, it was noted that the Thorotrast injection increased the mortality rate and the incidences of malignant hepatic tumor, liver cirrhosis, and hematological diseases. Clinical study of 44 of them showed that the Thorotrast injection resulted in liver and hematopoietic hypofunctions. Analysis of the dissection of the injected area in 118 cases showed malignant hepatic tumor in 63.5%, liver cirrhosis in 14.4% and hematological diseases in 10.2%. The total of the three types of disease was 88.1%. Histological classification showed that of the malignant hepatic tumors due to Thorotrast, hepatobiliary cancer and hemangioendothelioma of the liver were frequent. By the comparison of the absorbed dose in the liver of the malignant hepatic tumors due to Thorotrast with that of the cancers developed in animal experiments, it was noted that the carcinogenic dose was a mean of 2,000 - 3,000 rad by accumulated dose. It was elucidated that carcinogenesis and fibrination were primary in injury due to Thorotrast, i.e., late injury due to Thorotrast, and that the increase in the accumulated dose in rogans and the increase of the local dose due to the gigantic growth of Thorotrast granules in organs greatly influenced carninogenesis and fibrination. (Chiba, N.)

Wireless sensor network performance metrics for building applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jang, W.S. (Department of Civil Engineering Yeungnam University 214-1 Dae-Dong, Gyeongsan-Si Gyeongsangbuk-Do 712-749 South Korea); Healy, W.M. [Building and Fire Research Laboratory, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8632 (United States)

2010-06-15

Metrics are investigated to help assess the performance of wireless sensors in buildings. Wireless sensor networks present tremendous opportunities for energy savings and improvement in occupant comfort in buildings by making data about conditions and equipment more readily available. A key barrier to their adoption, however, is the uncertainty among users regarding the reliability of the wireless links through building construction. Tests were carried out that examined three performance metrics as a function of transmitter-receiver separation distance, transmitter power level, and obstruction type. These tests demonstrated, via the packet delivery rate, a clear transition from reliable to unreliable communications at different separation distances. While the packet delivery rate is difficult to measure in actual applications, the received signal strength indication correlated well with the drop in packet delivery rate in the relatively noise-free environment used in these tests. The concept of an equivalent distance was introduced to translate the range of reliability in open field operation to that seen in a typical building, thereby providing wireless system designers a rough estimate of the necessary spacing between sensor nodes in building applications. It is anticipated that the availability of straightforward metrics on the range of wireless sensors in buildings will enable more widespread sensing in buildings for improved control and fault detection. (author)

Impact of unilateral conductive hearing loss due to aural atresia on academic performance in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Kesser, Bradley W; Krook, Kaelyn; Gray, Lincoln C

2013-09-01

This study evaluates the effect of unilateral conductive hearing loss secondary to aural atresia on elementary school children's academic performance. Case control survey and review of audiometric data. One hundred thirty-two surveys were mailed to families of children with aural atresia, and 48 surveys were sent to families of children with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) to identify rates of grade retention, use of any resource, and behavioral problems. Audiometric data of the cohort were tabulated. Of the 40 atresia patients, none repeated a grade, but 65% needed some resources: 12.5% currently use a hearing aid, 32.5% use(d) a frequency-modulated system in school, 47.5% had an Individualized Education Plan, and 45% utilized speech therapy. Compared to the unilateral SNHL group and a cohort of children with unilateral SNHL in an earlier study, children with unilateral atresia were less likely to repeat a grade. Children in both unilateral atresia and SNHL groups were more likely to utilize some resource in the academic setting compared to the unilateral SNHL children in the prior study. Unilateral conductive hearing loss due to aural atresia has an impact on academic performance in children, although not as profound when compared to children with unilateral SNHL. The majority of these children with unilateral atresia utilize resources in the school setting. Parents, educators, and health care professionals should be aware of the impact of unilateral conductive hearing loss and offer appropriate habilitative services. Copyright © 2013 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

An fMRI study on variation of visuospatial cognitive performance of young male due to highly concentrated oxygen administration

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Soon Cheol; Kim, Ik Hyeon; Tack, Gye Rae; Sohn, Jin Hun

2004-04-01

This study investigated the effects of 30% oxygen administration on the visuospatial cognitive performance using fMRI. Eight college students (right-handed, average age 23.5) were selected as subjects for this study. Oxygen supply equipment which gives 21% and 30% oxygen at a constant rate of 8L/min was developed for this study. To measure the performance of visuospatial cognition, two questionnaires with similar difficulty containing 20 questions each were also developed. Experiment was designed as two runs: run for visuospatial cognition test with normal air (21% of oxygen) and run for visuospatial cognition test with highly concentrated air (30% of oxygen). Run consists of 4 blocks and each block has 8 control problems and 5 visuospatial problems. Functional brain images were taken from 3T MRI using single-shot EPI method. Activities of neural network due to performing visuospatial cognition test were identified using subtraction procedure, and activation areas while performing visuospatial cognition test were extracted using double subtraction procedure. Activities were observed at occipital lobe, parietal lobe, and frontal lobe when performing visuospatial cognition test following both 21% and 30% oxygen administration. But in case of only 30% oxygen administration there were more activities at left precuneus, left cuneus, right postcentral gyrus, bilateral middle frontal gyri, right inferior frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, bilateral uvula, bilateral pyramis, and nodule compared with 21% oxygen administration. From results of visuospatial cognition test, accuracy rate increased in case of 30% oxygen administration. Thus it could be concluded that highly concentrated oxygen administration has positive effects on the visuospatial cognitive performance.

Similar reliability and equivalent performance of female and male mice in the open field and water-maze place navigation task.

Science.gov (United States)

Fritz, Ann-Kristina; Amrein, Irmgard; Wolfer, David P

2017-09-01

Although most nervous system diseases affect women and men differentially, most behavioral studies using mouse models do not include subjects of both sexes. Many researchers worry that data of female mice may be unreliable due to the estrous cycle. Here, we retrospectively evaluated sex effects on coefficient of variation (CV) in 5,311 mice which had performed the same place navigation protocol in the water-maze and in 4,554 mice tested in the same open field arena. Confidence intervals for Cohen's d as measure of effect size were computed and tested for equivalence with 0.2 as equivalence margin. Despite the large sample size, only few behavioral parameters showed a significant sex effect on CV. Confidence intervals of effect size indicated that CV was either equivalent or showed a small sex difference at most, accounting for less than 2% of total group to group variation of CV. While female mice were potentially slightly more variable in water-maze acquisition and in the open field, males tended to perform less reliably in the water-maze probe trial. In addition to evaluating variability, we also directly compared mean performance of female and male mice and found them to be equivalent in both water-maze place navigation and open field exploration. Our data confirm and extend other large scale studies in demonstrating that including female mice in experiments does not cause a relevant increase of data variability. Our results make a strong case for including mice of both sexes whenever open field or water-maze are used in preclinical research. © 2017 The Authors. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part C Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Focused Logistics: Time for Functional Command

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Mintzlaff, Jeffrey G

2005-01-01

.... Unfortunately, logistical support is often taken for granted. As a result, the U.S. Military's logistical system has become sluggish, often unreliable, and expensive, in part due to its fragmented and inefficient organizational structure. The U.S...

Performance degradation of integrated optical modulators due to electrical crosstalk

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yao, W.; Gilardi, G.; Smit, M.K.; Wale, M.J.

2016-01-01

In this paper, we investigate electrical crosstalk in integrated Mach-Zehnder modulator arrays based on n-doped InP substrate and show that it can be the cause for transmitter performance degradations. In particular, a common ground return path between adjacent modulators can cause high coupling

Efficacy and safety of vedolizumab as a treatment option for moderate to severe refractory ulcerative colitis in two patients after liver transplant due to primary sclerosing cholangitis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raúl Vicente Olmedo-Martín

Full Text Available Vedolizumab is a humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody that selectively blocks the lymphocyte integrin α4β7 and prevents its interaction with endothelial adhesion molecules and subsequent transmigration to the gastrointestinal tract. The drug was approved in 2014 for the induction and maintenance treatment of ulcerative colitis and moderate to severe Crohn's disease that is refractory or intolerant to conventional treatment with corticoids and immunosuppressants and/or anti-TNFα drugs. However, inflammatory bowel disease has a variable behavior following liver transplant. One third of patients with ulcerative colitis associated with primary sclerosing cholangitis are expected to deteriorate despite receiving immunosuppression to prevent rejection. There is limited experience with anti-TNFα agents in patients with inflammatory bowel disease in the setting of liver transplantation and the studies to date involve a limited number of cases. The efficacy and safety data of vedolizumab in this situation are unreliable and very preliminary. We present two cases with the aim to present the efficacy and safety of vedolizumab after one year of treatment in two patients who underwent a transplant due to primary sclerosing cholangitis. One case had de novo post-transplant ulcerative colitis refractory to two anti-TNFα drugs (golimumab and infliximab. The other patient had a colostomy due to fulminant colitis and developed severe ulcerative proctitis refractory to infliximab after reconstruction with an ileorectal anastomosis.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of various strategies in the diagnostic management of pulmonary embolism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oudkerk, M.; van Beek, E. J.; van Putten, W. L.; Büller, H. R.

1993-01-01

Since the clinical diagnosis of pulmonary embolism is unreliable, various objective diagnostic methods (or combinations thereof) are advocated. Pulmonary angiography is the accepted reference method but is considered less suitable for initial screening due to its invasive nature. Therefore, at least

Real-time Railway Traffic Management : Dispatching in complex, large and busy railway networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Corman, F.

2010-01-01

Railway is an important and sustainable transportation mode, which despite good potentials results in a limited attractiveness, mostly due to the perceived consequences of unreliability. In fact, busy railway networks with frequent and heterogeneous services are highly sensitive to delay

Development of ultrasonic inspection technique for crack detection in retaining rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brook, M.V.

1990-01-01

The majority of retaining rings which are currently in service, are composed of a material which is susceptible to stress corrosion when exposed to moisture. Due to the inherent stress levels in the shrunk-on areas, they are particularly susceptible to stress corrosion attack. Therefore, retaining rings require non-destructive examination to avert catastrophic failure. Guidelines for retaining ring inspection issued by EPRI recommend ultrasonic manual and automated methods of inspection for rings in place. Application of the conventional manual method, using S-waves is difficult, and yields unreliable results. Due to the unreliability factor, utilities have been forced to depend upon surface examination methods, such as visual and penetrant techniques. In most instances, a surface exam will necessitate the costly and potentially damaging removal of the rings from the rotor to provide full access to areas of interest. Due to the various complexities of conventional ultrasonic retaining ring inspections, it is essential that the front end ultrasonics (i.e., transducers and techniques) be optimized to produce the best possible examination. For this reason, AMDATA has developed custom transducers and techniques to enhance automated detection capability of flaws in the various suspect areas of retaining rings. When the optimized techniques are applied to generate the best possible raw data, the Intraspect /98 trademark is then used to reliably apply technique, acquire the data and perform post processing evaluations. One of the most promising ultrasonic techniques for retaining ring inspection is creeping waves. This paper investigates the use of creeping waves for retaining ring inspection

Deployment Strategies and Clustering Protocols Efficiency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chérif Diallo

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Wireless sensor networks face significant design challenges due to limited computing and storage capacities and, most importantly, dependence on limited battery power. Energy is a critical resource and is often an important issue to the deployment of sensor applications that claim to be omnipresent in the world of future. Thus optimizing the deployment of sensors becomes a major constraint in the design and implementation of a WSN in order to ensure better network operations. In wireless networking, clustering techniques add scalability, reduce the computation complexity of routing protocols, allow data aggregation and then enhance the network performance. The well-known MaxMin clustering algorithm was previously generalized, corrected and validated. Then, in a previous work we have improved MaxMin by proposing a Single- node Cluster Reduction (SNCR mechanism which eliminates single-node clusters and then improve energy efficiency. In this paper, we show that MaxMin, because of its original pathological case, does not support the grid deployment topology, which is frequently used in WSN architectures. The unreliability feature of the wireless links could have negative impacts on Link Quality Indicator (LQI based clustering protocols. So, in the second part of this paper we show how our distributed Link Quality based d- Clustering Protocol (LQI-DCP has good performance in both stable and high unreliable link environments. Finally, performance evaluation results also show that LQI-DCP fully supports the grid deployment topology and is more energy efficient than MaxMin.

Transitioning to future air traffic management: effects of imperfect automation on controller attention and performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Rovira, Ericka; Parasuraman, Raja

2010-06-01

This study examined whether benefits of conflict probe automation would occur in a future air traffic scenario in which air traffic service providers (ATSPs) are not directly responsible for freely maneuvering aircraft but are controlling other nonequipped aircraft (mixed-equipage environment). The objective was to examine how the type of automation imperfection (miss vs. false alarm) affects ATSP performance and attention allocation. Research has shown that the type of automation imperfection leads to differential human performance costs. Participating in four 30-min scenarios were 12 full-performance-level ATSPs. Dependent variables included conflict detection and resolution performance, eye movements, and subjective ratings of trust and self confidence. ATSPs detected conflicts faster and more accurately with reliable automation, as compared with manual performance. When the conflict probe automation was unreliable, conflict detection performance declined with both miss (25% conflicts detected) and false alarm automation (50% conflicts detected). When the primary task of conflict detection was automated, even highly reliable yet imperfect automation (miss or false alarm) resulted in serious negative effects on operator performance. The further in advance that conflict probe automation predicts a conflict, the greater the uncertainty of prediction; thus, designers should provide users with feedback on the state of the automation or other tools that allow for inspection and analysis of the data underlying the conflict probe algorithm.

[Written pharmaceutical advertising--still unreliable?].

Science.gov (United States)

Gladsø, Kristin Haugen; Garberg, Hedda Rosland; Spigset, Olav; Slørdal, Lars

2014-09-02

Marketing by the pharmaceutical industry affects doctors' prescribing habits. All pharmaceutical advertising received by nine doctors in two GP offices over a period of three months was collected. The advertising material was sorted by compound. For each compound, the advert with the highest number of references was selected. The cited references were obtained, and the claims in the adverts were assessed in terms of their consistency with the source data based on the provisions in the Norwegian regulations on pharmaceuticals. The references were also assessed with regard to the incidence of conflicts of interest among authors. The doctors received a total of 270 shipments of advertising for 46 different compounds. Altogether 95% of the 173 references cited in the 46 selected adverts could be obtained. The adverts contained a total of 156 claims. Of these, 56% were assessed as correct when compared to the source data and as having clinical relevance. Altogether 75% of the journal articles reported relevant conflicts of interest for the authors. About half the claims in the adverts were found to be correct and clinically relevant. These results concur with those from a methodologically identical study based on advertising material collected in 2004. The cited literature was of varying quality and often funded by the pharmaceutical companies. The findings indicate that the target group should be sceptical of this type of marketing.

Auditing data reliability in international logistics : An application of bayesian networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Liu, L.; Daniels, H.A.M.; Triepels, R.J.M.A.; Hammoudi, S.; Maciaszek, L.; Cordeiro, J.

2014-01-01

Data reliability closely relates to the risk management in international logistics. Unreliable data negatively affect the business in various ways. Due to the competence specialization and cooperation among the business partners in a logistics chain, the business in a focal company is inevitably

An Error Control Scheme for Delay Constrained Data Communication in a Chain-Based Wireless Sensor Network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Taghikhaki, Zahra; Meratnia, Nirvana; Havinga, Paul J.M.

2012-01-01

Delay sensitive applications of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) demand timely data delivery for fast identification of out-of-ordinary situations and fast and reliable delivery of notification and warning messages. Due to unreliable nature of WSNs, achieving real-time guarantees and providing

Population structure and genetic diversity in North American Hedysarum boreale Nutt.

Science.gov (United States)

Bradley S. Bushman; Steven R. Larson; Michael D. Peel; Michael E. Pfrender

2007-01-01

Hedysarum boreale Nutt. is a perennial legume native to western North America, with robust foliage in the late spring season. Due to its wide native range, forage value, and N2 fixation, H. boreale is of interest for rangeland revegetation and production. Seed cost is a major obstacle for utilization of H. boreale, primarily due to seed shattering and unreliable seed...

Error Concealment Method Based on Motion Vector Prediction Using Particle Filters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Hrusovsky

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Video transmitted over unreliable environment, such as wireless channel or in generally any network with unreliable transport protocol, is facing the losses of video packets due to network congestion and different kind of noises. The problem is becoming more important using highly effective video codecs. Visual quality degradation could propagate into subsequent frames due to redundancy elimination in order to obtain high compression ratio. Since the video stream transmission in real time is limited by transmission channel delay, it is not possible to retransmit all faulty or lost packets. It is therefore inevitable to conceal these defects. To reduce the undesirable effects of information losses, the lost data is usually estimated from the received data, which is generally known as error concealment problem. This paper discusses packet loss modeling in order to simulate losses during video transmission, packet losses analysis and their impacts on the motion vectors losses.

AFT Chief Promises Due-Process Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Sawchuk, Stephen

2010-01-01

The president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Randi Weingarten, is putting the sensitive issue of due process on the education reform table, with a pledge to work with districts to streamline the often-cumbersome procedures for dismissing teachers who fail to improve their performance after receiving help and support. She has also…

Calculation of heat generation due to nuclear radiation in nuclear reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Torres, L.M.R.; Gomes, I.C.; Maiorino, J.R.

1986-01-01

The study is performed for caculating nuclear heating due to the interaction of neutrons and gamma-rays with matter. Modifications were implemented in the ANISN code, that solves the one-dimensional transport equation using the discrete ordinate method, to include nuclear heating calculations. Tests of the implemented modifications were performed in problems of nuclear heating due to radiation energy deposition in a fusion reactor. (Author) [pt

The reliability of test results from simple test samples in predicting the fatigue performance of automotive components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fourlaris, G.; Ellwood, R.; Jones, T.B.

2007-01-01

The use of high strength steels (HSS) in automotive components is steadily increasing as automotive designers use modern steel grades to improve structural performance, reduce vehicle weight and enhance crash performance. Weight reduction can be achieved by substituting mild steel with a thinner gauge HSS, however, it must be ensured that no deterioration in performance including fatigue capability occurs. In this study, tests have been carried out to determine the effects that gauge and material strength have on the fatigue performance of a fusion welded automotive suspension arm. Current finite element (FE) modelling and fatigue prediction techniques have been evaluated to determine their reliability when used for thin strip steels. Results have shown the fatigue performance of welded components to be independent of the strength of the parent material for the steel grades studied, with material thickness and joining process the key features determining the fatigue performance. The correlation between the fatigue performance of simple welded samples under uniaxial, constant amplitude loading and complex components under biaxial in service road load data, has been shown to be unreliable. This study also indicates that with the application of modern technologies, such as tailor-welded blanks (TWB), significant weight savings can be achieved. This is demonstrated by a 19% weight reduction with no detrimental effect on the fatigue performance

Optical performance of the SO/PHI full disk telescope due to temperature gradients effect on the heat rejection entrance window

Science.gov (United States)

Garranzo, D.; Núñez, A.; Zuluaga-Ramírez, P.; Barandiarán, J.; Fernández-Medina, A.; Belenguer, T.; Álvarez-Herrero, A.

2017-11-01

The Polarimetric Helioseismic Imager for Solar Orbiter (SO/PHI) is an instrument on board in the Solar Orbiter mission. The Full Disk Telescope (FDT) will have the capability of providing images of the solar disk in all orbital faces with an image quality diffraction-limited. The Heat Rejection Entrance Window (HREW) is the first optical element of the instrument. Its function is to protect the instrument by filtering most of the Solar Spectrum radiation. The HREW consists of two parallel-plane plates made from Suprasil and each surface has a coating with a different function: an UV shield coating, a low pass band filter coating, a high pass band filter coating and an IR shield coating, respectively. The temperature gradient on the HREW during the mission produces a distortion of the transmitted wave-front due to the dependence of the refractive index with the temperature (thermo-optic effect) mainly. The purpose of this work is to determine the capability of the PHI/FDT refocusing system to compensate this distortion. A thermal gradient profile has been considered for each surface of the plates and a thermal-elastic analysis has been done by Finite Element Analysis to determine the deformation of the optical elements. The Optical Path Difference (OPD) between the incident and transmitted wavefronts has been calculated as a function of the ray tracing and the thermo-optic effect on the optical properties of Suprasil (at the work wavelength of PHI) by means of mathematical algorithms based on the 3D Snell Law. The resultant wavefronts have been introduced in the optical design of the FDT to evaluate the performance degradation of the image at the scientific focal plane and to estimate the capability of the PHI refocusing system for maintaining the image quality diffraction-limited. The analysis has been carried out considering two different situations: thermal gradients due to on axis attitude of the instrument and thermal gradients due to 1° off pointing attitude

Maximum likelihood convolutional decoding (MCD) performance due to system losses

Science.gov (United States)

Webster, L.

1976-01-01

A model for predicting the computational performance of a maximum likelihood convolutional decoder (MCD) operating in a noisy carrier reference environment is described. This model is used to develop a subroutine that will be utilized by the Telemetry Analysis Program to compute the MCD bit error rate. When this computational model is averaged over noisy reference phase errors using a high-rate interpolation scheme, the results are found to agree quite favorably with experimental measurements.

Power production operations management : due diligence and emergency planning. The due diligence - management system connection : an operating managers guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelly, J.

1998-01-01

Steps taken by BC Hydro in implementing a company-wide emergency management system (EMS) were described. The driving force behind the implementation of the EMS were related to the business, namely: (1) to improve business and environmental performance, (2) to provide employees with the skills and tools to make the right decisions, (3) to retain and attract customers, (4) to build relations with regulators, NGOs and the public, and (5) to prove due diligence. This presentation focused on the due diligence component of the EMS. 1 fig

Why General Outlier Detection Techniques Do Not Suffice For Wireless Sensor Networks?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhang, Y.; Meratnia, Nirvana; Havinga, Paul J.M.

2009-01-01

Raw data collected in wireless sensor networks are often unreliable and inaccurate due to noise, faulty sensors and harsh environmental effects. Sensor data that significantly deviate from normal pattern of sensed data are often called outliers. Outlier detection in wireless sensor networks aims at

Performance of multi-junction cells due to illumination distribution across the cell surface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schultz, R.D.; Vorster, F.J; Dyk, E.E van

2012-01-01

This paper addresses the influence of illumination distribution on the performance of a high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) module. CPV systems comprise of optical elements as well as mechanical tracking to concentrate the solar flux onto the solar receiver as well as to keep the system on track with the sun. The performance of the subcells of the multi-junction concentrator cell depends on the optical alignment of the system. Raster scanning of the incident intensity in the optical plane of the receiver and corresponding I–V measurements were used to investigate the influence of illumination distribution on performance. The results show that the illumination distribution that differs between cells does affect the performance of the module. The performance of the subcells of the multi-junction concentrator cell also depends on the optical alignment of the system.

Performance of multi-junction cells due to illumination distribution across the cell surface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schultz, R.D., E-mail: s206029578@live.nmmu.ac.za [Nelson Mandela University, Physics Department, P.O. Box 77000, 6031, Port Elizabeth (South Africa); Vorster, F.J; Dyk, E.E van [Nelson Mandela University, Physics Department, P.O. Box 77000, 6031, Port Elizabeth (South Africa)

2012-05-15

This paper addresses the influence of illumination distribution on the performance of a high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) module. CPV systems comprise of optical elements as well as mechanical tracking to concentrate the solar flux onto the solar receiver as well as to keep the system on track with the sun. The performance of the subcells of the multi-junction concentrator cell depends on the optical alignment of the system. Raster scanning of the incident intensity in the optical plane of the receiver and corresponding I-V measurements were used to investigate the influence of illumination distribution on performance. The results show that the illumination distribution that differs between cells does affect the performance of the module. The performance of the subcells of the multi-junction concentrator cell also depends on the optical alignment of the system.

Physical activity and school absenteeism due to illness in adolescents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Groot, Renate; Van Dijk, Martin; Savelberg, Hans; Van Acker, Frederik; Kirschner, Paul A.

2017-01-01

Knowledge about the beneficial role of physical activity (PA) for health and school performance is growing. Studies investigating the link between PA and school absenteeism due to illness are lacking. Therefore we investigated associations between habitual PA and school absenteeism due to illness in

Sud du Sahara | Page 134 | CRDI - Centre de recherches pour le ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Kenya is experiencing perennial crop failures, massive loss of livestock and wildlife, unreliable power supply due to low water levels in the country's hydropower dams, outbreaks of water-borne diseases, and other problems associated with climate change. Read more about Mainstreaming climate change into Kenya's new ...

Sud du Sahara | Page 287 | CRDI - Centre de recherches pour le ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Kenya is experiencing perennial crop failures, massive loss of livestock and wildlife, unreliable power supply due to low water levels in the country's hydropower dams, outbreaks of water-borne diseases, and other problems associated with climate change. Read more about Mainstreaming climate change into Kenya's new ...

Sustainability of agricultural production in communal areas of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Access to financial support was limited due to lack of collateral and high production risk where farmers' production is solely based on natural and unreliable rainfall patterns and therefore unsustainable. Strategies to improve food security should receive priority to support sustainable resource management, increase access ...

Physical Activity and School Absenteeism Due to Illness in Adolescents

Science.gov (United States)

de Groot, Renate; van Dijk, Martin; Savelberg, Hans; van Acker, Frederik; Kirschner, Paul

2017-01-01

Background: Knowledge about the beneficial role of physical activity (PA) for health and school performance is growing. Studies investigating the link between PA and school absenteeism due to illness are lacking. Therefore, we investigated associations between habitual PA and school absenteeism due to illness in adolescents and explored whether…

Recurrent poststernotomy mediastinitis due to histoplasmosis: The ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This report describes the first case of surgical site infection due to Histoplasma capsulatum. A 4 year-old presented with recurrent thoracotomy surgical site infection (SSI) requiring multiple debridements until the correct diagnosis was performed. This case illustrates the critical role of histopathology in early recognition of ...

Changes in Handset Performance Measures due to Spherical Radiation Pattern Measurement Uncertainty

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jesper Ødum; Pedersen, Gert Frølund

An important characteristic of a mobile handset is its ability to receive and transmit power. One way to characterize the performance of a handset in this respect is to use measurements of the spherical radiation pattern from which the total radiated power (TRP), total isotropic sensitivity (TIS)...... with respect to the environment. Standard deviations up to about 0.5dB and a maximum deviation of about 1.6dB were found....... in the performance measures are investigated for both the GSM-900 and the GSM-1800 band. Despite the deliberately large deviations from the reference position, the changes in TRP and TIS are generally within ±0.5dB with a maximum of about 1.4dB. For the MEG values the results depend on the orientation of the handset...... system that may introduce errors in standardized performance measurements. Radiation patterns of six handsets have been measured while they were mounted at various offsets from the reference position defined by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) certification. The change...

Enhanced Component Performance Study: Motor-Driven Pumps 1998-2014

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schroeder, John Alton

2016-01-01

This report presents an enhanced performance evaluation of motor-driven pumps at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The data used in this study are based on the operating experience failure reports from fiscal year 1998 through 2014 for the component reliability as reported in the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Consolidated Events Database (ICES). The motor-driven pump failure modes considered for standby systems are failure to start, failure to run less than or equal to one hour, and failure to run more than one hour; for normally running systems, the failure modes considered are failure to start and failure to run. An eight hour unreliability estimate is also calculated and trended. The component reliability estimates and the reliability data are trended for the most recent 10-year period while yearly estimates for reliability are provided for the entire active period. Statistically significant increasing trends were identified in pump run hours per reactor year. Statistically significant decreasing trends were identified for standby systems industry-wide frequency of start demands, and run hours per reactor year for runs of less than or equal to one hour.

Increasing the reliability of the fluid/crystallized difference score from the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test with reliable component analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Caruso, J C

2001-06-01

The unreliability of difference scores is a well documented phenomenon in the social sciences and has led researchers and practitioners to interpret differences cautiously, if at all. In the case of the Kaufman Adult and Adolescent Intelligence Test (KAIT), the unreliability of the difference between the Fluid IQ and the Crystallized IQ is due to the high correlation between the two scales. The consequences of the lack of precision with which differences are identified are wide confidence intervals and unpowerful significance tests (i.e., large differences are required to be declared statistically significant). Reliable component analysis (RCA) was performed on the subtests of the KAIT in order to address these problems. RCA is a new data reduction technique that results in uncorrelated component scores with maximum proportions of reliable variance. Results indicate that the scores defined by RCA have discriminant and convergent validity (with respect to the equally weighted scores) and that differences between the scores, derived from a single testing session, were more reliable than differences derived from equal weighting for each age group (11-14 years, 15-34 years, 35-85+ years). This reliability advantage results in narrower confidence intervals around difference scores and smaller differences required for statistical significance.

Evaluation of 14 patients performed radiotherapy due to Kaposi sarcoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatma Teke

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Methods: The patients undergoing radiotherapy (RT because of the KS between the years 2005-2012 in Radiation Oncology Department of Dicle University Hospital were included. All patients underwent RT with different dose-fractionation schemes to increase quality of life and to palliate the symptoms. Patients with lesions in multiple regions underwent RT in the same or different dates. Responses to radiotherapy were recorded as complete or partial response. Results: Fourteen patients received radiotherapy because of f KS were evaluated retrospectively. Twenty two different regions of 14 patients underwent RT . Only one patient (4.5% was performed RT to glans penis as a third region while performed to the two regions in six patients (27.3%. At irradiations, 6 MV and 10 MV photon energies with 6 MeV, 9 MeV and 12 MeV electron energy were used. Water phantom or bolus material was used to obtain a homogeneous dose distribution in the photon irradiation. RT dose administered to a total of 22 different regional was median 800 cGy (Range: 800-3000 cGy. Median number of RT fractions was 1 (Range: 1-10. When treatment response were evaluated stable disease was present in the 4 (18.1% regions. Partial response was achieved in eight (36.4% regions, complete response in 10 (45.5%. RT-related common lymphedema in the feet and legs was observed in the four (57.3% regions in the acute period. Complication of pain was present in two (28.7% regions. Conclusion: RT is an appropriate and effective treatment regimen in the palliative treatment of KS lesions. Excellent response rates of skin lesions may be obtained by RT. Lesions and symptoms such as itching may be lost after RT. Side effects such as edema and pain may be relieved by supportive treatment.

A New Framework of Happiness Survey and Evaluation of National Wellbeing

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Haiou

2012-01-01

Happiness surveys based on self-reporting may generate unreliable data due to respondents' imperfect retrospection, vulnerability to context and arbitrariness in measuring happiness. To overcome these problems, this paper proposes to combine a happiness evaluation method developed by Ng (Soc Indic Res, 38:1-29, 1996) with the day reconstruction…

Theme, plot and narration in the novels of NG Sibiya | Groenewald ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Although instances of unreliability occur in the two novels, Sibiya has enriched isiZulu literature with these two novels; this is mainly due to his ability to write narrative prose that captivates the reader. He has also captivated the reader with the novel topic of homosexuality and transsexuality in Bengithi lizokuna.

(m, M) Machining system with two unreliable servers, mixed spares and common-cause failure

OpenAIRE

Jain, Madhu; Mittal, Ragini; Kumari, Rekha

2015-01-01

This paper deals with multi-component machine repair model having provision of warm standby units and repair facility consisting of two heterogeneous servers (primary and secondary) to provide repair to the failed units. The failure of operating and standby units may occur individually or due to some common cause. The primary server may fail partially following full failure whereas secondary server faces complete failure only. The life times of servers and operating/standby units and their re...

Technical Due Diligence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Per Anker; Varano, Mattia

2011-01-01

carried out for buyers or sellers involved in real estate transactions. It can also be part of mergers including real estate and other assets or part of facilities management outsourcing. This paper is based on a case study and an interview survey of companies involved in TDD consulting in Denmark......Technical Due Diligence (TDD) as an evaluation of the performance of constructed facilities has become an important new field of practice for consultants. Before the financial crisis started in autumn 2008 it represented the fastest growing activity in some consulting companies. TDD is mostly...... and Italy during 2009. The research identifies the current practice and compares it with the recommended practice in international guidelines. The current practice is very diverse and could in many cases be improved by a more structured approach and stricter adherence to international guidelines. However...

An FEC Adaptive Multicast MAC Protocol for Providing Reliability in WLANs

Science.gov (United States)

Basalamah, Anas; Sato, Takuro

For wireless multicast applications like multimedia conferencing, voice over IP and video/audio streaming, a reliable transmission of packets within short delivery delay is needed. Moreover, reliability is crucial to the performance of error intolerant applications like file transfer, distributed computing, chat and whiteboard sharing. Forward Error Correction (FEC) is frequently used in wireless multicast to enhance Packet Error Rate (PER) performance, but cannot assure full reliability unless coupled with Automatic Repeat Request forming what is knows as Hybrid-ARQ. While reliable FEC can be deployed at different levels of the protocol stack, it cannot be deployed on the MAC layer of the unreliable IEEE802.11 WLAN due to its inability to exchange ACKs with multiple recipients. In this paper, we propose a Multicast MAC protocol that enhances WLAN reliability by using Adaptive FEC and study it's performance through mathematical analysis and simulation. Our results show that our protocol can deliver high reliability and throughput performance.

Benefits of Imperfect Conflict Resolution Advisory Aids for Future Air Traffic Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Trapsilawati, Fitri; Wickens, Christopher D; Qu, Xingda; Chen, Chun-Hsien

2016-11-01

The aim of this study was to examine the human-automation interaction issues and the interacting factors in the context of conflict detection and resolution advisory (CRA) systems. The issues of imperfect automation in air traffic control (ATC) have been well documented in previous studies, particularly in conflict-alerting systems. The extent to which the prior findings can be applied to an integrated conflict detection and resolution system in future ATC remains unknown. Twenty-four participants were evenly divided into two groups corresponding to a medium- and a high-traffic density condition, respectively. In each traffic density condition, participants were instructed to perform simulated ATC tasks under four automation conditions, including reliable, unreliable with short time allowance to secondary conflict (TAS), unreliable with long TAS, and manual conditions. Dependent variables accounted for conflict resolution performance, workload, situation awareness, and trust in and dependence on the CRA aid, respectively. Imposing the CRA automation did increase performance and reduce workload as compared with manual performance. The CRA aid did not decrease situation awareness. The benefits of the CRA aid were manifest even when it was imperfectly reliable and were apparent across traffic loads. In the unreliable blocks, trust in the CRA aid was degraded but dependence was not influenced, yet the performance was not adversely affected. The use of CRA aid would benefit ATC operations across traffic densities. CRA aid offers benefits across traffic densities, regardless of its imperfection, as long as its reliability level is set above the threshold of assistance, suggesting its application for future ATC. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Enhanced Component Performance Study: Motor-Driven Pumps 1998–2014

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schroeder, John Alton [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2016-02-01

This report presents an enhanced performance evaluation of motor-driven pumps at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The data used in this study are based on the operating experience failure reports from fiscal year 1998 through 2014 for the component reliability as reported in the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Consolidated Events Database (ICES). The motor-driven pump failure modes considered for standby systems are failure to start, failure to run less than or equal to one hour, and failure to run more than one hour; for normally running systems, the failure modes considered are failure to start and failure to run. An eight hour unreliability estimate is also calculated and trended. The component reliability estimates and the reliability data are trended for the most recent 10-year period while yearly estimates for reliability are provided for the entire active period. Statistically significant increasing trends were identified in pump run hours per reactor year. Statistically significant decreasing trends were identified for standby systems industry-wide frequency of start demands, and run hours per reactor year for runs of less than or equal to one hour.

Frequency shift due to blackbody radiation in a cesium atomic fountain and improvement of the clock performances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, S.

2004-07-01

FO1 was the first caesium fountain primary frequency standard in the world. The most recent evaluation in 2002 before improvement reached an accuracy of 1*10 -15 when operated with optical molasses. Working as an extremely precise and stable instrument, FO1 has contributed to fundamental physics and technical measurements: - Frequency comparison between Cs and Rb fountains over an interval of 5 years sets an upper limit for a possible variation of the fine structure constant as |alpha/alpha| -15 /y. The resolution is about 5 times better than the previous test in our laboratory. The projected accuracy of the space clock PHARAO is 1*10 -16 . We confirmed its Ramsey cavity performance by testing the phase difference between the two interaction zones in FO1. The measured temperature T dependent frequency shift of the Cs clock induced by the blackbody radiation field is given as nu(T)=154(6)*10 -6 *(T/300) 4 [1+ε(T/300) 2 ] Hz with the theoretical value ε = 0,014. The obtained accuracy represents a 3 times improvement over the previous measurement by the PTB group. Some improvements have been carried out on FO1. The new FO1 version works directly with optical molasses loaded by a laser slowed atomic beam. The application of the adiabatic passage method to perform the state selection allows us to determine the atom number dependent frequency shifts due to the cold collision and cavity pulling effects at a level of of 10 -16 . Recently, the obtained frequency stability is 2,8*10 -14 *τ -1/2 for about 4*10 6 detected atoms. The accuracy is currently under evaluation, the expected value is a few times 10 -16 . (author)

Due diligence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanghera, G.S.

1999-01-01

The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act requires that every employer shall ensure the health and safety of workers in the workplace. Issues regarding the practices at workplaces and how they should reflect the standards of due diligence were discussed. Due diligence was described as being the need for employers to identify hazards in the workplace and to take active steps to prevent workers from potentially dangerous incidents. The paper discussed various aspects of due diligence including policy, training, procedures, measurement and enforcement. The consequences of contravening the OHS Act were also described

Anemia and performance status as prognostic markers in acute hypercapnic respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haja Mydin H

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Helmy Haja Mydin, Stephen Murphy, Howell Clague, Kishore Sridharan, Ian K TaylorDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Sunderland Royal Infirmary, Sunderland, United KingdomBackground: In patients with acute hypercapnic respiratory failure (AHRF during exacerbations of COPD, mortality can be high despite noninvasive ventilation (NIV. For some, AHRF is terminal and NIV is inappropriate. However there is no definitive method of identifying patients who are unlikely to survive. The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with inpatient mortality from AHRF with respiratory acidosis due to COPD.Methods: COPD patients presenting with AHRF and who were treated with NIV were studied prospectively. The forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1, World Health Organization performance status (WHO-PS, clinical observations, a composite physiological score (Early Warning Score, routine hematology and biochemistry, and arterial blood gases prior to commencing NIV, were recorded.Results: In total, 65 patients were included for study, 29 males and 36 females, with a mean age of 71 ± 10.5 years. Inpatient mortality in the group was 33.8%. Mortality at 30 days and 12 months after admission were 38.5% and 58.5%, respectively. On univariate analysis, the variables associated with inpatient death were: WHO-PS ≥ 3, long-term oxygen therapy, anemia, diastolic blood pressure < 70 mmHg, Early Warning Score ≥ 3, severe acidosis (pH < 7.20, and serum albumin < 35 g/L. On multivariate analysis, only anemia and WHO-PS ≥ 3 were significant. The presence of both predicted 68% of inpatient deaths, with a specificity of 98%.Conclusion: WHO-PS ≥ 3 and anemia are prognostic factors in AHRF with respiratory acidosis due to COPD. A combination of the two provides a simple method of identifying patients unlikely to benefit from NIV.Keywords: acute exacerbations of COPD, noninvasive ventilation, emphysema, prognostic markers

Automated cell counts on CSF samples: A multicenter performance evaluation of the GloCyte system.

Science.gov (United States)

Hod, E A; Brugnara, C; Pilichowska, M; Sandhaus, L M; Luu, H S; Forest, S K; Netterwald, J C; Reynafarje, G M; Kratz, A

2018-02-01

Automated cell counters have replaced manual enumeration of cells in blood and most body fluids. However, due to the unreliability of automated methods at very low cell counts, most laboratories continue to perform labor-intensive manual counts on many or all cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. This multicenter clinical trial investigated if the GloCyte System (Advanced Instruments, Norwood, MA), a recently FDA-approved automated cell counter, which concentrates and enumerates red blood cells (RBCs) and total nucleated cells (TNCs), is sufficiently accurate and precise at very low cell counts to replace all manual CSF counts. The GloCyte System concentrates CSF and stains RBCs with fluorochrome-labeled antibodies and TNCs with nucleic acid dyes. RBCs and TNCs are then counted by digital image analysis. Residual adult and pediatric CSF samples obtained for clinical analysis at five different medical centers were used for the study. Cell counts were performed by the manual hemocytometer method and with the GloCyte System following the same protocol at all sites. The limits of the blank, detection, and quantitation, as well as precision and accuracy of the GloCyte, were determined. The GloCyte detected as few as 1 TNC/μL and 1 RBC/μL, and reliably counted as low as 3 TNCs/μL and 2 RBCs/μL. The total coefficient of variation was less than 20%. Comparison with cell counts obtained with a hemocytometer showed good correlation (>97%) between the GloCyte and the hemocytometer, including at very low cell counts. The GloCyte instrument is a precise, accurate, and stable system to obtain red cell and nucleated cell counts in CSF samples. It allows for the automated enumeration of even very low cell numbers, which is crucial for CSF analysis. These results suggest that GloCyte is an acceptable alternative to the manual method for all CSF samples, including those with normal cell counts. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Unreliability effects in public transport modelling.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Oort, Niels; Brands, Ties; de Romph, Erik; Aceves Flores, Jessica

2015-01-01

Nowadays, transport demand models do not explicitly evaluate the impacts of service reliability of transit. Service reliability of transit systems is adversely experienced by users, as it causes additional travel time and unsecure arrival times. Because of this, travellers are likely to perceive a

The first OSCE; does students' experience of performing in public affect their results?

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, Michael; Bax, Nigel; Woodley, Caroline; Jennings, Michael; Nicolson, Rod; Chan, Philip

2015-03-26

Personal qualities have been shown to affect students' exam results. We studied the effect of experience, and level, of public performance in music, drama, dance, sport, and debate at the time of admission to medical school as a predictor of student achievement in their first objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). A single medical school cohort (n = 265) sitting their first clinical exam in 2011 as third year students were studied. Pre-admission statements made at the time of application were coded for their stated achievements in the level of public performance; participation in each activity was scored 0-3, where 0 was no record, 1 = leisure time activity, 2 = activity at school or local level, 3 = activity at district, regional or national level. These scores were correlated to OSCE results by linear regression and t-test. Comparison was made between the highest scoring students in each area, and students scoring zero by t-test. There was a bell shaped distribution in public performance score in this cohort. There was no significant linear regression relationship between OSCE results and overall performance score, or between any subgroups. There was a significant difference between students with high scores in theatre, debate and vocal music areas, grouped together as verbal performance, and students scoring zero in these areas. (p < 0.05, t-test) with an effect size of 0.4. We found modest effects from pre-admission experience of verbal performance on students' scores in the OSCE examination. As these data are taken from students' admission statements, we call into question the received wisdom that such statements are unreliable.

Evidence Report: Risk of Injury and Compromised Performance due to EVA Operations

Science.gov (United States)

Chappell, Steven P.; Norcross, Jason R.; Abercromby, Andrew F. J.; Bekdash, Omar S.; Benson, Elizabeth A.; Jarvis, Sarah L.; Conkin, Johnny; Gernhardt, Michael L.; House, Nancy; Jadwick, Jennifer;

System Study: Emergency Power System 1998-2014

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schroeder, John Alton [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States). Risk Assessment and Management Services Dept.

2015-12-01

This report presents an unreliability evaluation of the emergency power system (EPS) at 104 U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Demand, run hours, and failure data from fiscal year 1998 through 2014 for selected components were obtained from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Consolidated Events Database (ICES). The unreliability results are trended for the most recent 10 year period while yearly estimates for system unreliability are provided for the entire active period. An extremely statistically significant increasing trend was observed for EPS system unreliability for an 8-hour mission. A statistically significant increasing trend was observed for EPS system start-only unreliability.

Total gastrectomy due to ferric chloride intoxication.

Science.gov (United States)

Menéndez, A Mesut; Abramson, Leonardo; Vera, Raúl A; Duza, Guillermo E; Palermo, Mariano

2015-09-01

The ferric chloride intoxication is frequently caused by accident. Its toxicity is generally underrated, which can lead to fatal evolution or irreversible consequences. In this case, the caustic condition of the substance is related to the toxic properties of iron. A 36-year-old male patient arrives by ambulance indicating sensory deterioration. He presents erosive injuries in the buccal cavity and in the oropharynx, brownish teeth and metabolic acidosis. Toxicology tests and ferritin blood dosage are requested, which show a result from 1400 mg/dl. The symptoms are interpreted as acute iron intoxication. Due to the unfavorable evolution of his condition, an abdominal and pelvic CT scan are performed, which show extensive pneumoperitoneum and free fluid in the abdominal cavity. An exploratory laparotomy, a total gastrectomy with esophagostomy and feeding jejunostomy, washing and drainage due to perforated gastric necrosis caused by caustic ingestion are performed. In our country, there is a high rate of intoxication caused by iron compounds, although it is not statistically measured. Nevertheless, the ferric chloride intoxication is extremely infrequent. The ingestion of this product leads to complications, which are associated with the iron concentration and its condition as a caustic agent. The surgical indications in the presence of intoxication caused by iron compounds are: stomach evacuation of iron, gastric necrosis, perforation or peritonitis and stenosis. Early or prophylactic gastrectomy is contraindicated. However, if complications that require immediate surgical intervention arise, there should be no hesitation and the corresponding procedure should be performed.

Random Linear Network Coding is Key to Data Survival in Highly Dynamic Distributed Storage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sipos, Marton A.; Fitzek, Frank; Roetter, Daniel Enrique Lucani

2015-01-01

Distributed storage solutions have become widespread due to their ability to store large amounts of data reliably across a network of unreliable nodes, by employing repair mechanisms to prevent data loss. Conventional systems rely on static designs with a central control entity to oversee...... and control the repair process. Given the large costs for maintaining and cooling large data centers, our work proposes and studies the feasibility of a fully decentralized systems that can store data even on unreliable and, sometimes, unavailable mobile devices. This imposes new challenges on the design...... as the number of available nodes varies greatly over time and keeping track of the system's state becomes unfeasible. As a consequence, conventional erasure correction approaches are ill-suited for maintaining data integrity. In this highly dynamic context, random linear network coding (RLNC) provides...

Eosinophilic ascites due to severe eosinophilic ileitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Setia, Namrata; Ghobrial, Peter; Liron, Pantanowitz

2010-09-17

There is a broad etiology for effusion eosinophilia that includes allergic, reactive, infectious, immune, neoplastic, and idiopathic causes. We report and describe the cytomorphologic findings of a rare case of eosinophilic ascites due to severe eosinophilic ileitis. A 17-year-old male manifested acutely with eosinophilic ascites due to severe biopsy-proven subserosal eosinophilic ileitis. Isolated peritoneal fluid submitted for cytologic evaluation revealed that 65% eosinophils were present in a bloody background. The patient responded to corticosteroids, with complete resolution of his ascites. Eosinophilic gastroenteritis with subserosal involvement should be added to the list of causes for eosinophils in peritoneal fluid. The finding of eosinophilic ascites, with appropriate clinical and laboratory findings, may warrant the need to perform laparoscopic intestinal biopsies to confirm the diagnosis.

Precocious pseudopuberty due to juvenile granulosa cell tumor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saeed, G.A.; Farooq, N.

2003-01-01

A case of precocious puberty occurring in a young girl is presented. Vaginal bleeding and secondary sexual characteristics had occurred at 7 years of age associated with an abdominal mass. These findings were due to a functional juvenile granulosa cell tumor in the right ovary. Right adenectomy was performed. Histopathology was confirmatory. (author)

A study on an M/G/1 retrial G-queue with unreliable server under variant working vacations policy and vacation interruption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pakkirisami Rajadurai

2018-02-01

Full Text Available We consider a single server retrial queueing system with variant working vacations and vacation interruption where the regular busy server is subjected to breakdown due to the arrival of negative customers. As soon as the orbit becomes empty at the time of regular service completion for a positive customer, the server takes at most J number working vacations until at least one customer is received in the orbit when the server returns from a working vacation. During the working vacation period, the server serves at a lower speed service rate (µv<µb. Using the method of supplementary variable technique, we determined the steady state probability generating function for the system and its orbit. We also obtained some analytical expressions for various performance measures such as system state probabilities, the mean orbit size, the mean system size, and reliability measures of this model. Finally, some numerical examples are presented.

System Study: Residual Heat Removal 1998-2014

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schroeder, John Alton [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2015-12-01

This report presents an unreliability evaluation of the residual heat removal (RHR) system in two modes of operation (low-pressure injection in response to a large loss-of-coolant accident and post-trip shutdown-cooling) at 104 U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Demand, run hours, and failure data from fiscal year 1998 through 2014 for selected components were obtained from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Consolidated Events Database (ICES). The unreliability results are trended for the most recent 10 year period, while yearly estimates for system unreliability are provided for the entire active period. No statistically significant increasing trends were identified in the RHR results. A highly statistically significant decreasing trend was observed for the RHR injection mode start-only unreliability. Statistically significant decreasing trends were observed for RHR shutdown cooling mode start-only unreliability and RHR shutdown cooling model 24-hour unreliability.

Eosinophilic ascites due to severe eosinophilic ileitis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Setia Namrata

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Background: There is a broad etiology for effusion eosinophilia that includes allergic, reactive, infectious, immune, neoplastic, and idiopathic causes. We report and describe the cytomorphologic findings of a rare case of eosinophilic ascites due to severe eosinophilic ileitis. Case Presentation: A 17-year-old male manifested acutely with eosinophilic ascites due to severe biopsy-proven subserosal eosinophilic ileitis. Isolated peritoneal fluid submitted for cytologic evaluation revealed that 65% eosinophils were present in a bloody background. The patient responded to corticosteroids, with complete resolution of his ascites. Conclusion: Eosinophilic gastroenteritis with subserosal involvement should be added to the list of causes for eosinophils in peritoneal fluid. The finding of eosinophilic ascites, with appropriate clinical and laboratory findings, may warrant the need to perform laparoscopic intestinal biopsies to confirm the diagnosis.

Canine total knee replacement performed due to osteoarthritis subsequent to distal femur fracture osteosynthesis: two-year objective outcome.

Science.gov (United States)

Eskelinen, E V; Liska, W D; Hyytiäinen, H K; Hielm-Björkman, A

2012-01-01

A 27-kg German Shorthaired Pointer was referred for evaluation due to the complaint of left pelvic limb lameness and signs of pain in the left stifle joint. Radiographs revealed signs of a healed supracondylar femoral fracture that had been previously repaired at another hospital with an intramedullary pin and two cross pins. In addition, there were signs of severe osteoarthritis (OA). The OA had been managed medically with administration of carprofen and nutraceuticals for nine months without any improvement. Left total knee replacement (TKR) surgery was performed to alleviate signs of pain. The patient was assessed preoperatively and at six months, one year, and two years after surgery using radiology, force platform analysis of gait, thigh circumference measures, goniometry, and lameness evaluation. Following surgery, the dog resumed normal activity without any signs of pain and a good quality of life at 3.5 months. Force plate analysis found that peak vertical force on the TKR limb was 85.7% of the normal contralateral limb after two years. Total knee replacement was a successful treatment to manage knee OA associated with a healed distal femoral fracture and internal fixation in this dog.

Mental effort causes vigilance decrease due to resource depletion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smit, A.S.; Eling, P.A.T.M.; Coenen, A.M.L.

2004-01-01

The resource view on vigilance performance was tested. First, a low demanding task was compared with a similar low demanding task in which stimulus presentation was less monotonous due to added, irrelevant, stimuli. The resource view, maintaining that vigilance is lowered by hard mental work,

Physical Activity and School Absenteeism Due to Illness in Adolescents

OpenAIRE

de Groot, Renate; van Dijk, Martin; Savelberg, Hans; van Acker, Frederik; Kirschner, Paul

2017-01-01

Knowledge about the beneficial role of physical activity (PA) for health and school performance is growing. Studies investigating the link between PA and school absenteeism due to illness are lacking. Therefore we investigated associations between habitual PA and school absenteeism due to illness in adolescents and explored whether mental health and cardiovascular fitness mediated this association. 328 Students in grades 7 and 9 (mean age 13.8 years; 49% boys) were included. PA was measured o...

Containment Performance Evaluation of a Sodium Fire Event Due to Air Ingress into the Cover Gas Region of the Reactor Vessel in the PGSFR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Sang June; Chang, Won-Pyo; Kang, Seok Hun; Choi, Chi-Woong; Yoo, Jin; Lee, Kwi Lim; Jeong, Jae-Ho; Lee, Seung Won; Jeong, Taekyeong; Ha, Kwi-Seok

2015-01-01

Comparing with the light water reactor, sodium as a reactor coolant violently reacts with oxygen in the containment atmosphere. Due to this chemical reaction, heat generated from the combustion heat increases the temperature and pressure in the containment atmosphere. The structural integrity of the containment building which is a final radiological defense barrier is threaten. A sodium fire event in the containment due to air ingress into the cover gas region in the reactor vessel is classified as one of the design basis events in the PGSFR. This event comes from a leak or crack on the reactor upper closure header surface. It accompanys an event of the radiological fission products release to the inside the containment. In this paper, evaluation for the sodium fire and radiological influence due to air ingress into the cover gas region of the reactor vessel is described. To evaluate this event, the CONTAIN-LMR, MACCS-II and OR-IGEN-II codes are used. For the sodium pool fire event in the containment, the performance evaluation and radiological influence are carried out. In the thermal hydraulic aspects, the 1 cell containment yields the most conservative result. In this event, the maximum temperature and pressure in the containment are calculated 0.185 MPa, 280.0 .deg. C, respectively. The radiological dose at the EAB and LPZ are below the acceptance criteria specified in the 10CFR100

Containment Performance Evaluation of a Sodium Fire Event Due to Air Ingress into the Cover Gas Region of the Reactor Vessel in the PGSFR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahn, Sang June; Chang, Won-Pyo; Kang, Seok Hun; Choi, Chi-Woong; Yoo, Jin; Lee, Kwi Lim; Jeong, Jae-Ho; Lee, Seung Won; Jeong, Taekyeong; Ha, Kwi-Seok [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

Comparing with the light water reactor, sodium as a reactor coolant violently reacts with oxygen in the containment atmosphere. Due to this chemical reaction, heat generated from the combustion heat increases the temperature and pressure in the containment atmosphere. The structural integrity of the containment building which is a final radiological defense barrier is threaten. A sodium fire event in the containment due to air ingress into the cover gas region in the reactor vessel is classified as one of the design basis events in the PGSFR. This event comes from a leak or crack on the reactor upper closure header surface. It accompanys an event of the radiological fission products release to the inside the containment. In this paper, evaluation for the sodium fire and radiological influence due to air ingress into the cover gas region of the reactor vessel is described. To evaluate this event, the CONTAIN-LMR, MACCS-II and OR-IGEN-II codes are used. For the sodium pool fire event in the containment, the performance evaluation and radiological influence are carried out. In the thermal hydraulic aspects, the 1 cell containment yields the most conservative result. In this event, the maximum temperature and pressure in the containment are calculated 0.185 MPa, 280.0 .deg. C, respectively. The radiological dose at the EAB and LPZ are below the acceptance criteria specified in the 10CFR100.

Genetic programming for evolving due-date assignment models in job shop environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Su; Zhang, Mengjie; Johnston, Mark; Tan, Kay Chen

2014-01-01

Due-date assignment plays an important role in scheduling systems and strongly influences the delivery performance of job shops. Because of the stochastic and dynamic nature of job shops, the development of general due-date assignment models (DDAMs) is complicated. In this study, two genetic programming (GP) methods are proposed to evolve DDAMs for job shop environments. The experimental results show that the evolved DDAMs can make more accurate estimates than other existing dynamic DDAMs with promising reusability. In addition, the evolved operation-based DDAMs show better performance than the evolved DDAMs employing aggregate information of jobs and machines.

Optimizing Air Transportation Service to Metroplex Airports. Part 1; Analysis of Historical Data

Science.gov (United States)

Donohue, George; Hoffman, Karla; Sherry, Lance; Ferguson, John; Kara, Abdul Qadar

2010-01-01

The air transportation system is a significant driver of the U.S. economy, providing safe, affordable, and rapid transportation. During the past three decades airspace and airport capacity has not grown in step with demand for air transportation (+4% annual growth), resulting in unreliable service and systemic delays. Estimates of the impact of delays and unreliable air transportation service on the economy range from $32B to $41B per year. This report describes the results of an analysis of airline strategic decision-making with regards to: (1) geographic access, (2) economic access, and (3) airline finances. This analysis evaluated markets-served, scheduled flights, aircraft size, airfares, and profit from 2005-2009. During this period, airlines experienced changes in costs of operation (due to fluctuations in hedged fuel prices), changes in travel demand (due to changes in the economy), and changes in infrastructure capacity (due to the capacity limits at EWR, JFK, and LGA). This analysis captures the impact of the implementation of capacity limits at airports, as well as the effect of increased costs of operation (i.e. hedged fuel prices). The increases in costs of operation serve as a proxy for increased costs per flight that might occur if auctions or congestion pricing are imposed.

Surgeons' performance determining the amount of graft material for sinus floor augmentation using tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cruz, Adriana Dibo; Peixoto, Guilherme Alvares; Aguiar, Marcelo Freitas; Camargo, Gabriela Alessandra Cruz Galhardo; Homs, Nicolas

2017-01-01

This study aimed to assess the performance of surgeons in determining the amount of graft material required for maxillary sinus floor augmentation in a preoperative analysis using cone-beam computed tomography images. A convenience sample of 10 retrospective CBCT exams (i-CAT®) was selected. Scans of the posterior maxilla area with an absence of at least one tooth and residual alveolar bone with an up to 5 mm height were used. Templates (n=20) contained images of representative cross-sections in multiplanar view. Ten expert surgeons voluntarily participated as appraisers of the templates for grafting surgical planning of a 10 mm long implant. Appraisers could choose a better amount of graft material using scores: 0) when considered grafting unnecessary, 1) for 0.25 g in graft material, 2) for 0.50 g, 3) for 1.00 g and 4) for 1.50 g or more. Reliability of the response pattern was analyzed using Cronbach's α. Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests were performed to compare scores. Regression analysis was performed to evaluate whether the volume of sinuses (mm"3) influenced the choose of scores. In the reliability analysis, all values were low and the score distribution was independent of the volume of the maxillary sinuses (p>0.05), which did not influence choosing the amount of graft material. Surgeons were unreliable to determine the best amount of graft material for the maxillary sinus floor augmentation using only CBCT images. Surgeons require auxiliary diagnostic tools to measure the volume associated to CBCT exams in order to perform better. (author)

The Paradigms of Programming

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

[3] in these words: "It is well known that software is in a depressed state. It is unreliable, .... MYCIN, allowing an expert user to improve MYCIN'S performance. The TEIRESIAS ..... C.A.R. Hoare, Academic Press, New York, 1972, pp. 1-82.

Spectral analysis-based risk score enables early prediction of mortality and cerebral performance in patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia for ventricular fibrillation and comatose status

Science.gov (United States)

Filgueiras-Rama, David; Calvo, Conrado J.; Salvador-Montañés, Óscar; Cádenas, Rosalía; Ruiz-Cantador, Jose; Armada, Eduardo; Rey, Juan Ramón; Merino, J.L.; Peinado, Rafael; Pérez-Castellano, Nicasio; Pérez-Villacastín, Julián; Quintanilla, Jorge G.; Jiménez, Santiago; Castells, Francisco; Chorro, Francisco J.; López-Sendón, J.L.; Berenfeld, Omer; Jalife, José; López de Sá, Esteban; Millet, José

2017-01-01

Background Early prognosis in comatose survivors after cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation (VF) is unreliable, especially in patients undergoing mild hypothermia. We aimed at developing a reliable risk-score to enable early prediction of cerebral performance and survival. Methods Sixty-one out of 239 consecutive patients undergoing mild hypothermia after cardiac arrest, with eventual return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), and comatose status on admission fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Background clinical variables, VF time and frequency domain fundamental variables were considered. The primary and secondary outcomes were a favorable neurological performance (FNP) during hospitalization and survival to hospital discharge, respectively. The predictive model was developed in a retrospective cohort (n=32; September 2006–September 2011, 48.5 ± 10.5 months of follow-up) and further validated in a prospective cohort (n = 29; October 2011–July 2013, 5 ± 1.8 months of follow-up). Results FNP was present in 16 (50.0%) and 21 patients (72.4%) in the retrospective and prospective cohorts, respectively. Seventeen (53.1%) and 21 patients (72.4%), respectively, survived to hospital discharge. Both outcomes were significantly associated (p < 0.001). Retrospective multivariate analysis provided a prediction model (sensitivity= 0.94, specificity = 1) that included spectral dominant frequency, derived power density and peak ratios between high and low frequency bands, and the number of shocks delivered before ROSC. Validation on the prospective cohort showed sensitivity = 0.88 and specificity = 0.91. A model-derived risk-score properly predicted 93% of FNP. Testing the model on follow-up showed a c-statistic ≥ 0.89. Conclusions A spectral analysis-based model reliably correlates time-dependent VF spectral changes with acute cerebral injury in comatose survivors undergoing mild hypothermia after cardiac arrest. PMID:25828128

Diets formulated on total or digestible amino acid basis with different energy levels and physical form on broiler performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A Maiorka

2005-03-01

Full Text Available We studied the effects of two different systems of expressing amino acid requirements (total - TAA or digestible - DAA, two energy levels (2,900 or 3,200 kcal of ME/kg and two physical forms (mash or pellet on the performance of male broilers from 21 to 42 d of age. Diets formulated on DAA basis improved feed conversion (p<0.001 and the conversion of consumed ME into body weight gain (p<0.001. Birds fed 3,200 kcal ME/kg presented better feed conversion (p<0.001, higher abdominal fat deposition (p<0.001 and worse conversion of consumed ME into body weight gain (p<0.001 as compared to birds fed 2,900 kcal ME/kg. Birds fed pelleted feed had higher feed intake (p<0.001, higher weight gain (p<0.001, better feed conversion (p<0.001, better conversion of consumed ME into body weight gain (p<0.001 and higher abdominal fat deposition (p<0.001. The results obtained in the present study suggest that feed formulation based on DAA is required when diets contain protein sources which amino acid digestibility is unreliable. Besides, pelleted feed improves performance parameters of broilers.

Due Process in the Realm of Higher Education: Considerations for Dealing with Students Rights

Science.gov (United States)

Fishner, Jason T.

2006-01-01

Court decisions have laid out expectations of what due process procedures need to be followed in student disciplinary cases and academic dismissal cases due to poor academic performance. This paper will give show where due process comes from and how it found its way into higher education. It will show that there are differences in the ways public…

Pneumonia due to Enterobacter cancerogenus infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Demir, Tülin; Baran, Gamze; Buyukguclu, Tuncay; Sezgin, Fikriye Milletli; Kaymaz, Haci

2014-11-01

Enterobacter cancerogenus (formerly known as CDC Enteric Group 19; synonym with Enterobacter taylorae) has rarely been associated with human infections, and little is known regarding the epidemiology and clinical significance of this organism. We describe a community-acquired pneumonia case in a 44-year-old female due to E. cancerogenus. Identification and antimicrobial susceptibility of the microorganism was performed by the automatized VITEK 2 Compact system (bioMerieux, France). The clinical case suggests that E. cancerogenus is a potentially pathogenic microorganism in determined circumstances; underlying diseases such as bronchial asthma, empiric antibiotic treatment, wounds, diagnostic, or therapeutic instruments.

Delay-Aware Program Codes Dissemination Scheme in Internet of Everything

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yixuan Xu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Due to recent advancements in big data, connection technologies, and smart devices, our environment is transforming into an “Internet of Everything” (IoE environment. These smart devices can obtain new or special functions by reprogramming: upgrade their soft systems through receiving new version of program codes. However, bulk codes dissemination suffers from large delay, energy consumption, and number of retransmissions because of the unreliability of wireless links. In this paper, a delay-aware program dissemination (DAPD scheme is proposed to disseminate program codes with fast, reliable, and energy-efficient style. We observe that although total energy is limited in wireless sensor network, there exists residual energy in nodes deployed far from the base station. Therefore, DAPD scheme improves the performance of bulk codes dissemination through the following two aspects. (1 Due to the fact that a high transmitting power can significantly improve the quality of wireless links, transmitting power of sensors with more residual energy is enhanced to improve link quality. (2 Due to the fact that performance of correlated dissemination tends to degrade in a highly dynamic environment, link correlation is autonomously updated in DAPD during codes dissemination to maintain improvements brought by correlated dissemination. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that, compared with previous work, DAPD scheme improves the dissemination performance in terms of completion time, transmission cost, and the efficiency of energy utilization.

Impacts on sewer performance due to changes to inputs in domestic wastewater

OpenAIRE

Mattsson, Jonathan

2015-01-01

The impacts of changes in domestic wastewater inputs on sewer performance have been debated since the dawn of the great sewer construction movement in the 1850s. Nowadays, typical household wastewater that enters sewers can generally be divided into streams from the WC, shower and/or bathtub, kitchen sink, washing machine and dishwasher. Changes in thecomposition of domestic wastewater entering a sewer will depend on inter alia the properties of the appliances used in the households and house...

Effects of imperfect automation and individual differences on concurrent performance of military and robotics tasks in a simulated multitasking environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, J Y C; Terrence, P I

2009-08-01

This study investigated the performance and workload of the combined position of gunner and robotics operator in a simulated military multitasking environment. Specifically, the study investigated how aided target recognition (AiTR) capabilities for the gunnery task with imperfect reliability (false-alarm-prone vs. miss-prone) might affect the concurrent robotics and communication tasks. Additionally, the study examined whether performance was affected by individual differences in spatial ability and attentional control. Results showed that when the robotics task was simply monitoring the video, participants had the best performance in their gunnery and communication tasks and the lowest perceived workload, compared with the other robotics tasking conditions. There was a strong interaction between the type of AiTR unreliability and participants' perceived attentional control. Overall, for participants with higher perceived attentional control, false-alarm-prone alerts were more detrimental; for low attentional control participants, conversely, miss-prone automation was more harmful. Low spatial ability participants preferred visual cueing and high spatial ability participants favoured tactile cueing. Potential applications of the findings include personnel selection for robotics operation, robotics user interface designs and training development. The present results will provide further understanding of the interplays among automation reliability, multitasking performance and individual differences in military tasking environments. These results will also facilitate the implementation of robots in military settings and will provide useful data to military system designs.

Macroscopic travel time reliability diagrams for freeway networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tu, H.; Li, H.; Van Lint, J.W.C.; Knoop, V.L.; Sun, L.

2013-01-01

Travel time reliability is considered to be one of the key indicators of transport system performance. Knowledge of the mechanisms of travel time unreliability enables the derivation of explanatory models with which travel time reliability can be predicted and utilized in traffic management.

Surgeons' performance determining the amount of graft material for sinus floor augmentation using tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cruz, Adriana Dibo; Peixoto, Guilherme Alvares; Aguiar, Marcelo Freitas; Camargo, Gabriela Alessandra Cruz Galhardo; Homs, Nicolas, E-mail: adrianadibo@gmail.com [Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Nova Friburgo, RJ, (Brazil)

2017-05-15

This study aimed to assess the performance of surgeons in determining the amount of graft material required for maxillary sinus floor augmentation in a preoperative analysis using cone-beam computed tomography images. A convenience sample of 10 retrospective CBCT exams (i-CAT®) was selected. Scans of the posterior maxilla area with an absence of at least one tooth and residual alveolar bone with an up to 5 mm height were used. Templates (n=20) contained images of representative cross-sections in multiplanar view. Ten expert surgeons voluntarily participated as appraisers of the templates for grafting surgical planning of a 10 mm long implant. Appraisers could choose a better amount of graft material using scores: 0) when considered grafting unnecessary, 1) for 0.25 g in graft material, 2) for 0.50 g, 3) for 1.00 g and 4) for 1.50 g or more. Reliability of the response pattern was analyzed using Cronbach's α. Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests were performed to compare scores. Regression analysis was performed to evaluate whether the volume of sinuses (mm{sup 3}) influenced the choose of scores. In the reliability analysis, all values were low and the score distribution was independent of the volume of the maxillary sinuses (p>0.05), which did not influence choosing the amount of graft material. Surgeons were unreliable to determine the best amount of graft material for the maxillary sinus floor augmentation using only CBCT images. Surgeons require auxiliary diagnostic tools to measure the volume associated to CBCT exams in order to perform better. (author)

Small Bowel Perforation due to Gossypiboma Caused Acute Abdomen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tahsin Colak

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Gossypiboma, an infrequent surgical complication, is a mass lesion due to a retained surgical sponge surrounded by foreign body reaction. In this case report, we describe gossypiboma in the abdominal cavity which was detected 14 months after the hysterectomy due to acute abdominal pain. Gossypiboma was diagnosed by computed tomography (CT. The CT findings were a rounded mass with a dense central part and an enhancing wall. In explorative laparotomy, small bowel loops were seen to be perforated due to inflammation of long standing gossypiboma. Jejunal resection with end-to-end anastomosis was performed. The patient was discharged whithout complication. This case was presented to point to retained foreign body (RFB complications and we believed that the possibility of a retained foreign body should be considered in the differential diagnosis of who had previous surgery and complained of pain, infection, or palpable mass.

The use of assistive technology for cognition to support the performance of daily activities for individuals with cognitive disabilities due to traumatic brain injury: The current state of the research.

Science.gov (United States)

Leopold, Anne; Lourie, Anna; Petras, Hanno; Elias, Eileen

2015-01-01

Many individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are young and could have many years of productivity ahead of them. However, cognitive impairments may hinder individuals' ability to perform daily tasks. Assistive technology for cognition (ATC) can be effective in helping compensate for cognitive impairments. This study examined the current state of the research on using ATCs to support daily activities for individuals with cognitive disabilities that are due to TBI. A comprehensive systematic literature search was performed to identify peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2015. To evaluate the nature of the research, qualitative data were extracted pertaining to recruitment, participant characteristics, intervention design, type of ATCs and their functions, matching individuals with ATCs, training for using the ATC, and outcomes. Research examining the effectiveness of ATCs as everyday compensatory tools for cognitive impairments that are due to TBI is limited. The majority of studies were case studies or quasi-experimental studies with small sample sizes. Studies showed positive associations between use of ATCs and individuals' abilities to perform tasks regardless of age, TBI severity, and time since injury. Future research should assess the match between the individual and the technology, study the impact of training on using ATCs, and analyze the usability of ATCs.

Stretch due to Penile Prosthesis Reservoir Migration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Baten

2016-03-01

Full Text Available A 43-year old patient presented to the emergency department with stretch, due to impossible deflation of the penile prosthesis, 4 years after successful implant. A CT-scan showed migration of the reservoir to the left rectus abdominis muscle. Refilling of the reservoir was inhibited by muscular compression, causing stretch. Removal and replacement of the reservoir was performed, after which the prosthesis was well-functioning again. Migration of the penile prosthesis reservoir is extremely rare but can cause several complications, such as stretch.

Emittance growth due to negative-mass instability above transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ng, King-Yuen.

1994-08-01

Due to space-charge effect, there is a growth of bunch emittance across transition as a result of negative-mass instability. The models of growth at cutoff frequency and growth from high-frequency Schottky noise are reviewed. The difficulties of performing reliable simulations are discussed. An intuitive self-bunching model for estimating emittance growth is presented

Road Accident due to a Pancreatic Insulinoma

Science.gov (United States)

Parisi, Amilcare; Desiderio, Jacopo; Cirocchi, Roberto; Grassi, Veronica; Trastulli, Stefano; Barberini, Francesco; Corsi, Alessia; Cacurri, Alban; Renzi, Claudio; Anastasio, Fabio; Battista, Francesca; Pucci, Giacomo; Noya, Giuseppe; Schillaci, Giuseppe

2015-01-01

Abstract Insulinoma is a rare pancreatic endocrine tumor, typically sporadic and solitary. Although the Whipple triad, consisting of hypoglycemia, neuroglycopenic symptoms, and symptoms relief with glucose administration, is often present, the diagnosis may be challenging when symptoms are less typical. We report a case of road accident due to an episode of loss of consciousness in a patient with pancreatic insulinoma. In the previous months, the patient had occasionally reported nonspecific symptoms. During hospitalization, endocrine examinations were compatible with an insulin-producing tumor. Abdominal computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging allowed us to identify and localize the tumor. The patient underwent a robotic distal pancreatectomy with partial omentectomy and splenectomy. Insulin-producing tumors may go undetected for a long period due to nonspecific clinical symptoms, and may cause episodes of loss of consciousness with potentially lethal consequences. Robot-assisted procedures can be performed with the same techniques of the traditional surgery, reducing surgical trauma, intraoperative blood loss, and hospital stays. PMID:25816027

Ileocolic intussusception due to a cecal endometriosis: Case report and review of literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emmanuel Rivkine

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Cecal endometriosis and ileocolic intussusception due to a cecal endometriosis is extremely rare. We report a case of a woman who presented an ileocecal intussusception due to a cecal endometriosis. The patient gave two months history of chronic periombilical pain requiring regular hospital admission and analgesia. The symptoms were not related to menses. A laparotomy was performed and revealed an ileocolic intussusception. The abdominal exploration did not find any endometriosis lesion. Ileocaecal resection was performed. Microscopic examination showed a cystic component, lined by a regular cylindric epithelium. Foci of endometrial tissu were oberved in the cecal subserosa and muscularis mucosal, with irregular endometrial glands lined by cylindric epithelium without atypia immunostained with CK7, and characteristic endometrial stroma immunostained with CD10. Cecal endometriosis and ileocolic intussusception due to a cecal endometriosis is extremely rare. Diagnose of etiology remains challenging due to the absence of clinical and radiological specific characteristics. Virtual slide The virtual slide(s for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/2975867306869166

Surface and bulk MHD instabilities due to insulator coating imperfections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Zengyu; Reed, C.B.; Pan Chuanjie

2002-01-01

Experiments were performed using copper electrodes inserted into the wall of a perfectly insulated duct to simulate insulator coating flaking or cracking. The results show that surface electric potential U and MHD pressure drop ΔP exhibit a non-monotonic behavior with increasing V 0 , while the magnetic field B 0 is held constant. Additional experiments were also performed keeping all external experimental conditions fixed while measuring the change of U, V 0 , B 0 , and ΔP with increasing time. It was found that while all external experimental conditions were kept constant, the system changed by itself and U, V 0 and ΔP exhibited a non-monotonic behavior with increasing time. The results seem contrary to the law of ΔP∝V 0 B 0 n , but are consistent with conservation of energy, which implies that the change is due to some inherent feature of the system, or possibly instabilities, which may occur due to insulator coating imperfections

Impaired laparoscopic performance of novice surgeons due to phone call distraction: a single-centre, prospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Cui; Heinze, Julia; Helmert, Jens; Weitz, Juergen; Reissfelder, Christoph; Mees, Soeren Torge

2017-12-01

Distractions such as phone calls during laparoscopic surgery play an important role in many operating rooms. The aim of this single-centre, prospective study was to assess if laparoscopic performance is impaired by intraoperative phone calls in novice surgeons. From October 2015 to June 2016, 30 novice surgeons (medical students) underwent a laparoscopic surgery training curriculum including two validated tasks (peg transfer, precision cutting) until achieving a defined level of proficiency. For testing, participants were required to perform these tasks under three conditions: no distraction (control) and two standardised distractions in terms of phone calls requiring response (mild and strong distraction). Task performance was evaluated by analysing time and accuracy of the tasks and response of the phone call. In peg transfer (easy task), mild distraction did not worsen the performance significantly, while strong distraction was linked to error and inefficiency with significantly deteriorated performance (P phone call distractions result in impaired laparoscopic performance under certain circumstances. To ensure patient safety, phone calls should be avoided as far as possible in operating rooms.

The Economic Impact of Loss of Performance Due to Absenteeism and Presenteeism Caused by Depressive Symptoms and Comorbid Health Conditions among Japanese Workers

Science.gov (United States)

WADA, Koji; ARAKIDA, Mikako; WATANABE, Rika; NEGISHI, Motomi; SATO, Jun; TSUTSUMI, Akizumi

2013-01-01

We aimed to determine the economic impact of absenteeism and presenteeism from five conditions potentially comorbid with depressive symptoms—back or neck disorders, depression, anxiety, or emotional disorders, chronic headaches, stomach or bowel disorders, and insomnia—among Japanese workers aged 18–59 yr. Participants from 19 workplaces anonymously completed Stanford Presenteeism Scale questionnaires. Participants identified one primary health condition and determined the resultant performance loss (0–100%) over the previous 4-wk period. We estimated the wage loss by gender, using 10-yr age bands. A total of 6,777 participants undertook the study. Of these, we extracted the data for those in the 18–59 yr age band who chose targeted primary health conditions (males, 2,535; females 2,465). The primary health condition identified was back or neck disorders. We found that wage loss due to presenteeism and absenteeism per 100 workers across all 10-yr age bands was high for back or neck disorders. Wage loss per person was relatively high among those identifying depression, anxiety, or emotional disorders. These findings offer insight into developing strategies for workplace interventions on increasing work performance. PMID:23892900

The economic impact of loss of performance due to absenteeism and presenteeism caused by depressive symptoms and comorbid health conditions among Japanese workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wada, Koji; Arakida, Mikako; Watanabe, Rika; Negishi, Motomi; Sato, Jun; Tsutsumi, Akizumi

2013-01-01

We aimed to determine the economic impact of absenteeism and presenteeism from five conditions potentially comorbid with depressive symptoms-back or neck disorders, depression, anxiety, or emotional disorders, chronic headaches, stomach or bowel disorders, and insomnia-among Japanese workers aged 18-59 yr. Participants from 19 workplaces anonymously completed Stanford Presenteeism Scale questionnaires. Participants identified one primary health condition and determined the resultant performance loss (0-100%) over the previous 4-wk period. We estimated the wage loss by gender, using 10-yr age bands. A total of 6,777 participants undertook the study. Of these, we extracted the data for those in the 18-59 yr age band who chose targeted primary health conditions (males, 2,535; females 2,465). The primary health condition identified was back or neck disorders. We found that wage loss due to presenteeism and absenteeism per 100 workers across all 10-yr age bands was high for back or neck disorders. Wage loss per person was relatively high among those identifying depression, anxiety, or emotional disorders. These findings offer insight into developing strategies for workplace interventions on increasing work performance.

APPENDICULAR INVAGINATION DUE TO ENDOMETRIOSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasja Kruh

2003-12-01

Full Text Available Background. Invagination of the vermiform appendix is a very rare occurrence. We summarize epidemiologic and etiologic factors, types of classification, symtomatology, diagnostic features and treatment.Patients and treatment. The authors present 49-years old female with long-standing abdominal pains, who came in our hospital due to acute exacerbation with sever abdominal pain. Because of progressive symptoms and sensitivity in the right-lower abdominal quadrant a diagnostic laparoscopy was performed. An anomaly of cecum and the absence of appendix vermiformis have forced us to proceed with laparotomy in McBurnay point. After cecotomy an invaginated gangrenous appendix was found. The histological examination revealed endometriosis.Conclusions. By presenting this extremely rare pathology we also want to emphasize the important role of diagnostic laparoscopy in front of acute abdomen.

Performance estimation of control rod position indicator due to aging of magnet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Je Yong; Kim, Ji Ho; Huh, Hyung; Choi, Myoung Hwan; Sohn, Dong Seong

2009-01-01

The Control Element Drive Mechanism (CEDM) for the integral reactor is designed to raise and lower the control rod in steps of 2mm in order to satisfy the design features of the integral reactor which are the soluble boron free operation and the use of a nuclear heating for the reactor start-up. The actual position of the control rod could be achieved to sense the magnet connected to the control rod by the position indicator around the upper pressure housing of CEDM. It is sufficient that the actual position information of control rod at 20mm interval from the position indicator is used for the core safety analysis. As the magnet moves upward along the position indicator assembly from the bottom to the top in the upper pressure housing, the output voltage increases linearly step-wise at 0.2VDC increments. Between every step there are transient areas which occur by a contact closing of three reed switches which is the 2-3-2 contact closing sequence. In this paper the output voltage signal corresponding to the position of control rod was estimated on the 2-1-2 contact closing sequence due to the aging of the magnet.

Tumor Microenvironment In Experimental Models Of Human Cancer: Morphological Investigational Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia Minoli

2017-05-01

Discussion and conclusions. Due to the microenvironmental heterogeneity which influence tumor development and biological behavior, a sole quantification is unreliable for characterizing the TME. Considering that, morphological techniques proved to be a valuable approach, allowing the evaluation of the spatial distribution and mutual interaction between the different elements. Additional studies are needed for further investigate the biological significance of spatial distribution of the components of the TME.

Enhancing Trust Management for Wireless Intrusion Detection via Traffic Sampling in the Era of Big Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meng, Weizhi; Li, Wenjuan; Su, Chunhua

2017-01-01

many kinds of information among sensors, whereas such network is vulnerable to a wide range of attacks, especially insider attacks, due to its natural environment and inherent unreliable transmission. To safeguard its security, intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are widely adopted in a WSN to defend...... against insider attacks through implementing proper trustbased mechanisms. However, in the era of big data, sensors may generate excessive information and data, which could degrade the effectiveness of trust computation. In this paper, we focus on this challenge and propose a way of combining Bayesian......-based trust management with traffic sampling for wireless intrusion detection under a hierarchical structure. In the evaluation, we investigate the performance of our approach in both a simulated and a real network environment. Experimental results demonstrate that packet-based trust management would become...

Evaluation of reliability of on-site A.C. power systems based on maintenance records

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Basso, G.; Pia, S. [ENEA/TERM/VAOEC, C.R.E. Casaccla via Anguillarese, 00100 Roma/Rome (Italy); Fusari, W. [ENEL, Rome (Italy); Soressi, G.; Vaccari, G. [ENEL, Centro di Ricerca Termica e Nucl., Via Rubattino, 54, 1-20134 Mllano/Milan (Italy)

1986-02-15

To the end of ascertain in what extent the evaluation of reliability of emergency diesel generators (D.G.) can be improved by means of a deeper knowledge of their operating history a study has been carried-out on 21 D.G. sets: 4 D.G. of the Caorso nuclear plant (BWR, 870 MWe) and 17 D.G. in service at 6 steam-electric fossil-fuelled plants. The major points of interest resulting from this study are: 1) reliability assessments of A.C. on-site power Systems, made on the basis of outcomes of surveillance tests, may lead to results which overestimate the real performance. 2) the unreliability of a redundant System of stand-by components is determined in large extent by unavailabilities due to scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, latent failures, tests. (authors)

Evaluation of reliability of on-site A.C. power systems based on maintenance records

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Basso, G.; Pia, S.; Fusari, W.; Soressi, G.; Vaccari, G.

1986-01-01

To the end of ascertain in what extent the evaluation of reliability of emergency diesel generators (D.G.) can be improved by means of a deeper knowledge of their operating history a study has been carried-out on 21 D.G. sets: 4 D.G. of the Caorso nuclear plant (BWR, 870 MWe) and 17 D.G. in service at 6 steam-electric fossil-fuelled plants. The major points of interest resulting from this study are: 1) reliability assessments of A.C. on-site power Systems, made on the basis of outcomes of surveillance tests, may lead to results which overestimate the real performance. 2) the unreliability of a redundant System of stand-by components is determined in large extent by unavailabilities due to scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, latent failures, tests. (authors)

Application of an Autonomous/Unmanned Survey Vessel (ASV/USV in Bathymetric Measurements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Specht Cezary

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The accuracy of bathymetric maps, especially in the coastal zone, is very important from the point of view of safety of navigation and transport. Due to the continuous change in shape of the seabed, these maps are fast becoming outdated for precise navigation. Therefore, it is necessary to perform periodical bathymetric measurements to keep them updated on a current basis. At present, none of the institutions in Poland (maritime offices, Hydrographic Office of the Polish Navy which are responsible for implementation of this type of measurements has at their disposal a hydrographic vessel capable of carrying out measurements for shallow waters (at depths below 1 m. This results in emergence of large areas for which no measurement data have been obtained and, consequently, the maps in the coastal zones are rather unreliable.

Evaluation of obstructive uropathy in children: radionuclide renography vs. the Whitaker test

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Senac, M.O. Jr.; Miller, J.H.; Stanley, P.

1984-01-01

Differentiation of obstructed from dilated, nonobstructed urinary systems in the postoperative child is a difficult diagnostic problem. A comparison study was performed in 21 children with hydroureteronephrosis using the Whitaker test in combination with conventional radionuclide renography and/or diuretic (furosemide)-augmented radionuclide renography. The results of each method were corelated with the clinical assessment and surgical findings. Conventional renography was found to be an unreliable study, with a clinical correctness of only 57%. Results were more favorable for both the Whitaker test and diurectic-augmented radionuclide renography, with clinical correctness in 86% and 85%, respectively. Due to the noninvasive nature of the study, diuretic-augmented radionuclide renography should be the initial procedure once hydroureteronephrosis is established. A recommended algorithm of the child with postoperative hydroureteronephrosis is suggested

Evaluering av Leap Motion kontrollern för visualisering av musik

OpenAIRE

Uvman, Oliver

2016-01-01

An experiment was carried out, attempting to ascertain whether the Leap Motion Controller can be a useful input device for dynamically controlling graphic visualizations, e.g. by artists who use video and interactive visual arts to enhance music performances. The Leap Motion Controller was found to be too unreliable to be used as the primary controller in a professional visual arts performance.

Measuring emergency physicians' work: factoring in clinical hours, patients seen, and relative value units into 1 metric.

Science.gov (United States)

Silich, Bert A; Yang, James J

2012-05-01

Measuring workplace performance is important to emergency department management. If an unreliable model is used, the results will be inaccurate. Use of inaccurate results to make decisions, such as how to distribute the incentive pay, will lead to rewarding the wrong people and will potentially demoralize top performers. This article demonstrates a statistical model to reliably measure the work accomplished, which can then be used as a performance measurement.

Temperature distribution due to the heat generation in nuclear reactor shielding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Torres, L.M.R.

1985-01-01

A study is performed for calculating nuclear heating due to the interaction of neutrons and gamma-rays with matter. Modifications were implemented in the ANISN and DOT 3.5 codes, that solve the transport equation using the discrete ordinate method, in one two-dimensions respectively, to include nuclear heating calculations in these codes. In order to determine the temperature distribution, using the finite difference method, a numerical model was developed for solving the heat conduction equation in one-dimension, in plane, cylindrical and spherical geometries, and in two-dimensions, X-Y and R-Z geometries. Based on these models, computer programs were developed for calculating the temperature distribution. Tests and applications of the implemented modifications were performed in problems of nuclear heating and temperature distribution due to radiation energy deposition in fission and fusion reactor shields. (Author) [pt

Bioprocess iterative batch-to-batch optimization based on hybrid parametric/nonparametric models.

Science.gov (United States)

Teixeira, Ana P; Clemente, João J; Cunha, António E; Carrondo, Manuel J T; Oliveira, Rui

2006-01-01

This paper presents a novel method for iterative batch-to-batch dynamic optimization of bioprocesses. The relationship between process performance and control inputs is established by means of hybrid grey-box models combining parametric and nonparametric structures. The bioreactor dynamics are defined by material balance equations, whereas the cell population subsystem is represented by an adjustable mixture of nonparametric and parametric models. Thus optimizations are possible without detailed mechanistic knowledge concerning the biological system. A clustering technique is used to supervise the reliability of the nonparametric subsystem during the optimization. Whenever the nonparametric outputs are unreliable, the objective function is penalized. The technique was evaluated with three simulation case studies. The overall results suggest that the convergence to the optimal process performance may be achieved after a small number of batches. The model unreliability risk constraint along with sampling scheduling are crucial to minimize the experimental effort required to attain a given process performance. In general terms, it may be concluded that the proposed method broadens the application of the hybrid parametric/nonparametric modeling technique to "newer" processes with higher potential for optimization.

Comparison of friction and wear performances of brake materials containing different amounts of ZrSiO4 dry sliding against SiCp reinforced Al matrix composites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Shaoyang; Wang Fuping

2007-01-01

Low friction levels for brake materials dry sliding against Al matrix composites (Al-MMCs) were observed. Al matrix composites reinforced with 30 vol.% SiC p (34 μm) were used first to fabricate a new brake drum in place of the conventional cast iron brake drum for a Chase Machine. Experimental studies on the brake materials differing in amounts of zirconium silicate (0 wt%, 4 wt%, 8 wt%, and 12 wt% ZrSiO 4 ) dry sliding against the Al-MMCs drum were performed on the Chase Machine in order to examine their effects on friction and wear performances. The test procedures include friction fade and recovery, load and speed sensitivities at 177 deg. C and 316 deg. C, and wear. Experimental results show that the brake material containing 8 wt% ZrSiO 4 had the best wear resistance and higher friction level. The brake material containing 12 wt% ZrSiO 4 had the highest friction level, but wear increased rapidly. The deterioration of the latter wear suggests that this brake material is unreliable in commercial applications

Building Resilient Cloud Over Unreliable Commodity Infrastructure

OpenAIRE

Kedia, Piyus; Bansal, Sorav; Deshpande, Deepak; Iyer, Sreekanth

2012-01-01

Cloud Computing has emerged as a successful computing paradigm for efficiently utilizing managed compute infrastructure such as high speed rack-mounted servers, connected with high speed networking, and reliable storage. Usually such infrastructure is dedicated, physically secured and has reliable power and networking infrastructure. However, much of our idle compute capacity is present in unmanaged infrastructure like idle desktops, lab machines, physically distant server machines, and lapto...

School Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Lamas, Héctor A.

2015-01-01

The school performance study of students is, due to its relevance and complexity, one of the issues of major controversy in the educational research, and it has been given special attention in the last decades. This study is intended to show a conceptual approach to the school performance construct, contextualizing the reality in the regular basic…

A commercially available IgE-based test for food allergy gives inconsistent results in healthy ponies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dupont, S; De Spiegeleer, A; Liu, D J X; Lefère, L; van Doorn, D A; Hesta, M

2014-01-01

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY: Commercial IgE-based tests are available for diagnosis of food allergies and are commonly used in equine practice. However, these tests have been proven unreliable as a screening method in humans and other species, but not critically evaluated in equines. Therefore, a

The gender difference on the Mental Rotations test is not due to performance factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Masters, M S

1998-05-01

Men score higher than women on the Mental Rotations test (MRT), and the magnitude of this gender difference is the largest of that on any spatial test. Goldstein, Haldane, and Mitchell (1990) reported finding that the gender difference on the MRT disappears when "performance factors" are controlled--specifically, when subjects are allowed sufficient time to attempt all items on the test or when a scoring procedure that controls for the number of items attempted is used. The present experiment also explored whether eliminating these performance factors results in a disappearance of the gender difference on the test. Male and female college students were allowed a short time period or unlimited time on the MRT. The tests were scored according to three different procedures. The results showed no evidence that the gender difference on the MRT was affected by the scoring method or the time limit. Regardless of the scoring procedure, men scored higher than women, and the magnitude of the gender difference persisted undiminished when subjects completed all items on the test. Thus there was no evidence that performance factors produced the gender difference on the MRT. These results are consistent with the results of other investigators who have attempted to replicate Goldstein et al.'s findings.

Drag and power-loss in rowing due to velocity fluctuations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Greidanus, A.J.; Delfos, R.; Westerweel, J.; Jansen, A.J.

2016-01-01

The flow motions in the turbulent boundary layer between water and a rowing boat initiate a turbulent skin friction. Reducing this skin friction results in better rowing performances. A Taylor-Couette (TC) facility was used to verify the power losses due to velocity fluctuations P_V′ in

A Case of Primary Hyperparathyroidism due to Intrathyroidal Parathyroid Cyst

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yavuz Yalcin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Parathyroid cysts constitute 0.08–3.41% of all parathyroid masses. Intrathyroidal parathyroid cysts, however, are rare conditions with only a few cases being reported. Most of the parathyroid cysts are found to be nonfunctional and functional cysts are generally thought to be due to cystic degeneration of parathyroid adenomas. A cystic, smooth contoured lesion of 24 × 19 × 16 mm was observed in left thyroid lobe of a 76-year-old woman during ultrasonography which was performed as routine workup for primary hyperparathyroidism. It was defined as a cystic thyroid nodule at first. Tc99m sestamibi scintigraphy was performed to see any parathyroid lesions, but no radioactive uptake was observed. Intact parathormone (iPTH level was found to be >600 pg/mL in cyst aspiration fluid. Left lobectomy was performed, with a diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism due to functional parathyroid cyst. Serum iPTH level was decreased >50% postoperatively and histopathological evaluation was consistent with an encapsulated parathyroid adenoma with a cystic center. Parathyroid cysts are among rare causes of primary hyperparathyroidism. Diagnosis is made by markedly increased iPTH level in cyst fluid and observation of parathyroid epithelium lining the cyst wall.

Due diligence during the integration of physician groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Ealey, Tom

2011-12-01

While contemplating physician group integration, providers should perform due diligence and ask questions in several key areas to ensure successful integrations: Financial--Is the group producing the revenue expected, and is the revenue cycle managed effectively? Statistical--What are the numbers of encounters, procedures, surgeries, and ancillaries? Compliance--Has the group developed and operated a sound compliance program, and has compliance been a priority? Succession--How many physicians are within three to five years of retirement?

Performance Health Monitoring of Large-Scale Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rajamony, Ram [IBM Research, Austin, TX (United States)

2014-11-20

This report details the progress made on the ASCR funded project Performance Health Monitoring for Large Scale Systems. A large-­scale application may not achieve its full performance potential due to degraded performance of even a single subsystem. Detecting performance faults, isolating them, and taking remedial action is critical for the scale of systems on the horizon. PHM aims to develop techniques and tools that can be used to identify and mitigate such performance problems. We accomplish this through two main aspects. The PHM framework encompasses diagnostics, system monitoring, fault isolation, and performance evaluation capabilities that indicates when a performance fault has been detected, either due to an anomaly present in the system itself or due to contention for shared resources between concurrently executing jobs. Software components called the PHM Control system then build upon the capabilities provided by the PHM framework to mitigate degradation caused by performance problems.

Thermal and Energy Performance of Conditioned Building Due To Insulated Sloped Roof

Science.gov (United States)

Irwan, Suhandi Syiful; Ahmed, Azni Zain; Zakaria, Nor Zaini; Ibrahim, Norhati

2010-07-01

For low-rise buildings in equatorial region, the roof is exposed to solar radiation longer than other parts of the envelope. Roofs are to be designed to reject heat and moderate the thermal impact. These are determined by the design and construction of the roofing system. The pitch of roof and the properties of construction affect the heat gain into the attic and subsequently the indoor temperature of the living spaces underneath. This finally influences the thermal comfort conditions of naturally ventilated buildings and cooling load of conditioned buildings. This study investigated the effect of insulated sloping roof on thermal energy performance of the building. A whole-building thermal energy computer simulation tool, Integrated Environmental Solution (IES), was used for the modelling and analyses. A building model with dimension of 4.0 m × 4.0 m × 3.0 m was designed with insulated roof and conventional construction for other parts of the envelope. A 75 mm conductive insulation material with thermal conductivity (k-value) of 0.034 Wm-1K-1 was installed underneath the roof tiles. The building was modelled with roof pitch angles of 0° , 15°, 30°, 45°, 60° and simulated for the month of August in Malaysian climate conditions. The profile for attic temperature, indoor temperature and cooling load were downloaded and evaluated. The optimum roof pitch angle for best thermal performance and energy saving was identified. The results show the pitch angle of 0° is able to mitigate the thermal impact to provide the best thermal condition with optimum energy savings. The maximum temperature difference between insulated and non-insulted roof for attic (AtticA-B) and indoor condition (IndoorA-B) is +7.8 °C and 0.4 °C respectively with an average energy monthly savings of 3.9 %.

Handling of uncertainty due to interference fringe in FT-NIR transmittance spectroscopy - Performance comparison of interference elimination techniques using glucose-water system

Science.gov (United States)

Beganović, Anel; Beć, Krzysztof B.; Henn, Raphael; Huck, Christian W.

2018-05-01

The applicability of two elimination techniques for interferences occurring in measurements with cells of short pathlength using Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy was evaluated. Due to the growing interest in the field of vibrational spectroscopy in aqueous biological fluids (e.g. glucose in blood), aqueous solutions of D-(+)-glucose were prepared and split into a calibration set and an independent validation set. All samples were measured with two FT-NIR spectrometers at various spectral resolutions. Moving average smoothing (MAS) and fast Fourier transform filter (FFT filter) were applied to the interference affected FT-NIR spectra in order to eliminate the interference pattern. After data pre-treatment, partial least squares regression (PLSR) models using different NIR regions were constructed using untreated (interference affected) spectra and spectra treated with MAS and FFT filter. The prediction of the independent validation set revealed information about the performance of the utilized interference elimination techniques, as well as the different NIR regions. The results showed that the combination band of water at approx. 5200 cm-1 is of great importance since its performance was superior to the one of the so-called first overtone of water at approx. 6800 cm-1. Furthermore, this work demonstrated that MAS and FFT filter are fast and easy-to-use techniques for the elimination of interference fringes in FT-NIR transmittance spectroscopy.

Pancreatic Pseudocyst Ruptured due to Acute Intracystic Hemorrhage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kunishige Okamura

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Rupture of pancreatic pseudocyst is one of the rare complications and usually results in high mortality. The present case was a rupture of pancreatic pseudocyst that could be treated by surgical intervention. A 74-year-old man developed abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, and he was diagnosed with cholecystitis and pneumonia. Three days later, acute pancreatitis occurred and computed tomography (CT showed slight hemorrhage in the cyst of the pancreatic tail. After another 10 days, CT showed pancreatic cyst ruptured due to intracystic hemorrhage. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography revealed leakage of contrast agent from pancreatic tail cyst to enclosed abdominal cavity. His left hypochondrial pain was increasing, and CT showed rupture of the cyst of the pancreatic tail into the peritoneal cavity was increased in 10 days. CT showed also two left renal tumors. Therefore we performed distal pancreatectomy with concomitant resection of transverse colon and left kidney. We histopathologically diagnosed pancreatic pseudocyst ruptured due to intracystic hemorrhage and renal cell carcinoma. Despite postoperative paralytic ileus and fluid collection at pancreatic stump, they improved by conservative management and he could be discharged on postoperative day 29. He has achieved relapse-free survival for 6 months postoperatively. The mortality of pancreatic pseudocyst rupture is very high if some effective medical interventions cannot be performed. It should be necessary to plan appropriate treatment strategy depending on each patient.

Neurodevelopmental toxicity risks due to occupational exposure to industrial chemicals during pregnancy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Julvez, Jordi; Grandjean, Philippe

2009-01-01

Exposure to neurotoxic chemicals is of particular concern when it occurs during early development. The immature brain is highly vulnerable prenatally and is therefore at risk due to occupational exposures incurred by pregnant women. A systematic search of the literature has been performed...... by occupational health researchers and practitioners from the need to protect pregnant workers. Due to the vulnerability of the brain during early development, a precautionary approach to neurodevelopmental toxicity needs to be applied in occupational health....

A spectral theory approach for extreme value analysis in a tandem of fluid queues

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.W. Bosman (Joost); R. Núñez Queija (Rudesindo)

2014-01-01

htmlabstractWe consider a model to evaluate performance of streaming media over an unreliable network. Our model consists of a tandem of two fluid queues. The first fluid queue is a Markov modulated fluid queue that models the network congestion, and the second queue represents the play-out buffer.

Enhancing the Internet of Things Architecture with Flow Semantics

Science.gov (United States)

DeSerranno, Allen Ronald

2017-01-01

Internet of Things ("IoT") systems are complex, asynchronous solutions often comprised of various software and hardware components developed in isolation of each other. These components function with different degrees of reliability and performance over an inherently unreliable network, the Internet. Many IoT systems are developed within…

Towards an Integrated Workload Control (WLC) Concept : The Performance of Due Date Setting Rules in Job Shops with Contingent Orders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Thuerer, Matthias; Stevenson, Mark; Silva, Cristovao; Land, Martin

2013-01-01

Workload control (WLC) is a production planning and control concept developed for make-to-order companies. Its customer enquiry management methodology supports due date setting, while its order release mechanism determines when to start production. For make-to-order companies, due date setting is a

Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Reliable Computations in Recurrent Spiking Neural Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Pyle, Ryan; Rosenbaum, Robert

2017-01-01

Randomly connected networks of excitatory and inhibitory spiking neurons provide a parsimonious model of neural variability, but are notoriously unreliable for performing computations. We show that this difficulty is overcome by incorporating the well-documented dependence of connection probability on distance. Spatially extended spiking networks exhibit symmetry-breaking bifurcations and generate spatiotemporal patterns that can be trained to perform dynamical computations under a reservoir computing framework.

Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Reliable Computations in Recurrent Spiking Neural Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Pyle, Ryan; Rosenbaum, Robert

2017-01-06

Randomly connected networks of excitatory and inhibitory spiking neurons provide a parsimonious model of neural variability, but are notoriously unreliable for performing computations. We show that this difficulty is overcome by incorporating the well-documented dependence of connection probability on distance. Spatially extended spiking networks exhibit symmetry-breaking bifurcations and generate spatiotemporal patterns that can be trained to perform dynamical computations under a reservoir computing framework.

Rice cultivation in the farming systems of Sukumaland, Tanzania : a quest for sustainable production under structural adjustment programmes

OpenAIRE

Meertens, H.C.C.

1999-01-01

This thesis investigates options for sustainable rice cultivation and general agricultural development in the Mwanza and Shinyanga regions in northwestern Tanzania, often called Sukumaland due to the predominance of Wasukuma people. Generally Sukumaland has a semi-arid climate; agriculture is constrained by unreliable and low rainfall. In the past fifty years the population density has doubled in most parts. This has triggered several changes in farming systems. One important change ...

Advanced Portable Preterm Baby Incubator

OpenAIRE

Shaib , M.; Rashid , M.; Hamawy , L.; Arnout , M.; Majzoub , I. ,; Zaylaa , A. ,

2017-01-01

International audience; Nearly 20 million premature and Low Birth Weight infants are born each year in developing countries, 4 million die within their first month. These deaths occur due to the unavailability or unreliability of traditional incubators. Moreover, although Telemedicine is helpful in rural areas, the shortage of healthcare providers have made it inaccessible in both basic healthcare. Thereby, traditional preterm baby and low-birth weight incubators and therapeutic techniques la...

Heat Loads Due To Small Penetrations In Multilayer Insulation Blankets

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, W. L.; Heckle, K. W.; E Fesmire, J.

2017-12-01

The main penetrations (supports and piping) through multilayer insulation systems for cryogenic tanks have been previously addressed by heat flow measurements. Smaller penetrations due to fasteners and attachments are now experimentally investigated. The use of small pins or plastic garment tag fasteners to ease the handling and construction of multilayer insulation (MLI) blankets goes back many years. While it has long been understood that penetrations and other discontinuities degrade the performance of the MLI blanket, quantification of this degradation has generally been lumped into gross performance multipliers (often called degradation factors or scale factors). Small penetrations contribute both solid conduction and radiation heat transfer paths through the blanket. The conduction is down the stem of the structural element itself while the radiation is through the hole formed during installation of the pin or fastener. Analytical models were developed in conjunction with MLI perforation theory and Fourier’s Law. Results of the analytical models are compared to experimental testing performed on a 10 layer MLI blanket with approximately 50 small plastic pins penetrating the test specimen. The pins were installed at ∼76-mm spacing inches in both directions to minimize the compounding of thermal effects due to localized compression or lateral heat transfer. The testing was performed using a liquid nitrogen boil-off calorimeter (Cryostat-100) with the standard boundary temperatures of 293 K and 78 K. Results show that the added radiation through the holes is much more significant than the conduction down the fastener. The results are shown to be in agreement with radiation theory for perforated films.

Task failure during exercise to exhaustion in normoxia and hypoxia is due to reduced muscle activation caused by central mechanisms while muscle metaboreflex does not limit performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael eTorres-Peralta

2016-01-01

Full Text Available To determine whether task failure during incremental exercise to exhaustion (IE is principally due to reduced neural drive and increased metaboreflex activation eleven men (22±2 years performed a 10s control isokinetic sprint (IS; 80 rpm after a short warm-up. This was immediately followed by an IE in normoxia (Nx, PIO2:143 mmHg and hypoxia (Hyp, PIO2:73 mmHg in random order, separated by a 120 min resting period. At exhaustion, the circulation of both legs was occluded instantaneously (300 mmHg during 10 or 60s to impede recovery and increase metaboreflex activation. This was immediately followed by an IS with open circulation. Electromyographic recordings were obtained from the vastus medialis and lateralis. Muscle biopsies and blood gases were obtained in separate experiments. During the last 10s of the IE, pulmonary ventilation, VO2, power output and muscle activation were lower in hypoxia than in normoxia, while pedaling rate was similar. Compared to the control sprint, performance (IS-Wpeak was reduced to a greater extent after the IE-Nx (11% lower P<0.05 than IE-Hyp. The root mean square (EMGRMS was reduced by 38 and 27% during IS performed after IE-Nx and IE-Hyp, respectively (Nx vs. Hyp: P<0.05. Post-ischemia IS-EMGRMS values were higher than during the last 10s of IE. Sprint exercise mean (IS-MPF and median (IS-MdPF power frequencies, and burst duration, were more reduced after IE-Nx than IE-Hyp (P<0.05. Despite increased muscle lactate accumulation, acidification, and metaboreflex activation from 10 to 60s of ischemia, IS-Wmean (+23% and burst duration (+10% increased, while IS-EMGRMS decreased (-24%, P<0.05, with IS-MPF and IS-MdPF remaining unchanged. In conclusion, close to task failure, muscle activation is lower in hypoxia than in normoxia. Task failure is predominantly caused by central mechanisms, which recover to great extent within one minute even when the legs remain ischemic. There is dissociation between the recovery of

Congenital goiter due to maternal ingestion of iodide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iancu, T.; Boyanower, Y.; Laurian, N.

1974-01-01

A newborn infant with large bilateral cervical masses developed respiratory difficulties three days after birth. A congenital goiter was suspected and a biopsy was performed. Later information pointed to the ingestion of large amounts of inorganic iodine, during the pregnancy, by the asthmatic mother. Further investigation proved the goiter to be due to transient depression of peroxidase activity by the exogenous iodine. Within several days after birth, the infant's thyroid regained its full activity, the goiter disappeared, and the few signs of hypothyroidism subsided. (U.S.)

Reliability problems of heat transfer equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Collier, J.G.

1983-01-01

A short historical account is given of the development of pressure vessel codes. The subject is then discussed under the headings: the cost of heat exchanger unreliability; degraded performance or failure; fouling; mal-distribution of flow; corrosion; erosion; vibration; thermal fatigue; corrosion fatigue; mal-operation; water hammer; conclusions. (U.K.)

Lesions in canine stifle joints due to trochleoplasties as treatment for medial patellar luxation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johannes Hans van der Zee

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Lesions in canine stifle joints after previous trochleoplasty surgery were documented. Infour clinical cases arthrotomies were performed due to stifle pain after previous trochleardeepening procedures. A small area of hyaline cartilage remained in the groove of the stiflesin cases where previous wedge trochleoplasties had been performed. All of the stifles hadsignificant areas of eburnation on the axial aspect of the medial trochlear ridge. The stifle jointsof a dog that was euthanased due to severe irreversible osteo-arthritis were photographed.The dog had undergone previous surgery for patellar luxation and cranial cruciate ligamentruptures. The trochlear grooves in this dog had almost no visible articular cartilage left.

Tracheoesophageal Fistula due to a Damaged Tracheal Stent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masahiro Kimura

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We describe the management of a tracheoesophageal fistula due to a damaged tracheal stent, which was first inserted to treat tracheal stenosis. A 29-year-old woman with a history of treated epilepsy had a seizure and suffered from smoke inhalation during a fire. Breathing difficulties appeared and gradually worsened; consultation was obtained two years afterward. After undergoing a thorough examination, the patient was diagnosed with tracheal strangulation. A noncovered, metallic stent was inserted. When the patient was 37 years old, she was admitted to our hospital for the treatment of a tracheoesophageal fistula. We diagnosed it as a tracheoesophageal fistula due to the collapse of the damaged tracheal stent toward the esophageal side, and we decided to perform a mediastinal tracheostomy. Granulation may be formed in the circumference of a stent that has been present for a prolonged period, and removal of the stent may become difficult. This case suggests that insertion of a noncovered, metallic stent is contraindicated for a benign disease.

Sensitivity of Micromachined Joule-Thomson Cooler to Clogging Due to Moisture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cao, Haishan; Vanapalli, Srinivas; Holland, Herman J.; Vermeer, Cristian Hendrik; ter Brake, Hermanus J.M.

2015-01-01

A major issue in long-term operation of micromachined Joule-Thomson coolers is the clogging of the microchannels and/or the restriction due to the deposition of water molecules present in the working fluid. In this study, we present the performance of a microcooler operated with nitrogen gas with

[Forensic Analysis of 6 Cases of Sudden Death due to Hyperthyroid Heart Disease].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, M Z; Li, B X; Zhao, R; Guan, D W; Zhang, G H; Wu, X; Zhu, B L; Li, R B

2017-10-01

To analyse the cases of sudden death due to hyperthyroid heart disease, and explore the general information of deaths and the forensic pathological characteristics to provide reference evidence for forensic identification of such cases. Six cases of sudden death due to hyperthyroid heart disease between 2001 and 2016 were selected from School of Forensic Medicine, China Medical University. The general information （gender and age）, clinical manifestations, medical history, anatomical and histopathological findings, biochemical parameters and cause of death were analysed retrospectively. Most of the 6 patients had definite history of hyperthyroidism, and they all showed certain degrees of symptoms of cardiovascular disease; had obvious incentive factors of death; histopathological examination of thyroid conformed to the performances of diffuse toxic goiter; with increase of cardiac weight, dilatation of cardiac chambers, myocardial hypertrophy and focal necrosis; postmortem biochemical analyses of pericardial fluid could be used as an additional method for diagnostic of sudden death due to hyperthyroid heart disease. The identification of death due to hyperthyroid heart disease should be based on the clinical history and the results of autopsy, histopathological examination, postmortem toxicology tests. The postmortem biochemical detection of thyroid and cardiac function should be performed if necessary. Copyright© by the Editorial Department of Journal of Forensic Medicine

Quantitative analysis of the improvement in high zoom maritime tracking due to real-time image enhancement

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Bachoo, AK

2011-04-01

Full Text Available This work aims to evaluate the improvement in the performance of tracking small maritime targets due to real-time enhancement of the video streams from high zoom cameras on pan-tilt pedestal. Due to atmospheric conditions these images can frequently...

Inconsistent Responding in a Criminal Forensic Setting: An Evaluation of the VRIN-r and TRIN-r Scales of the MMPI-2-RF.

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Wen; Reddy, Hima B; Green, Debbie; Belfi, Brian; Einzig, Shanah

2017-01-01

Criminal forensic evaluations are complicated by the risk that examinees will respond in an unreliable manner. Unreliable responding could occur due to lack of personal investment in the evaluation, severe mental illness, and low cognitive abilities. In this study, 31% of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011) profiles were invalid due to random or fixed-responding (T score ≥ 80 on the VRIN-r or TRIN-r scales) in a sample of pretrial criminal defendants evaluated in the context of treatment for competency restoration. Hierarchical regression models showed that symptom exaggeration variables, as measured by inconsistently reported psychiatric symptoms, contributed over and above education and intellectual functioning in their prediction of both random responding and fixed responding. Psychopathology variables, as measured by mood disturbance, better predicted fixed responding after controlling for estimates of cognitive abilities, but did not improve the prediction for random responding. These findings suggest that random responding and fixed responding are not only affected by education and intellectual functioning, but also by intentional exaggeration and aspects of psychopathology. Measures of intellectual functioning and effort and response style should be considered for administration in conjunction with self-report personality measures to rule out rival hypotheses of invalid profiles.

Lüge, Täuschung und Verwirrung. Unzuverlässiges und ‚verstörendes Erzählen‘ in Literatur und Film

OpenAIRE

Sabine Schlickers

2015-01-01

My contribution aims to modify current concepts of unreliable narration in literature and film. Although in film studies it is more common to talk of mind-game movies, this notion is not synonymous with unreliable narration: mind-game movies are films which question (the perception of) reality through the deployment of  various specific ambiguities, whereas unreliable narration excludes – in my definition – the ambiguity by using an unexpected plot twist. In order to account for all narrative...

[How valid are student self-reports of bullying in schools?].

Science.gov (United States)

Morbitzer, Petra; Spröber, Nina; Hautzinger, Martin

2009-01-01

In this study we examine the reliability and validity of students' self-reports about bullying and victimization in schools. 208 5th class students of four "middle schools" in Southern Germany filled in the Bully-Victim-Questionnaire (Olweus, 1989, adapted by Lösel, Bliesener, Averbeck, 1997) and the School Climate Survey (Brockenborough, 2001) to assess the prevalence of bullying/victimization, and to evaluate attitudes towards aggression and support for victims. By using reliability and validity criteria, one third (31%) of the questionnaires was classified as "unreliable/invalid". Mean comparisons of the "unreliable/invalid" group and the "valid" group of the subscales concerning bullying/victimization found significant differences. The "unreliable/invalid" group stated higher values of bullying and victimization. Based on the "unreliable/invalid" questionnaires more students could be identified as bullies/victims or bully-victims. The prevalence of bullying/victimization in the whole sample was reduced if "unreliable/invalid" questionnaires were excluded. The results are discussed in the framework of theories about the presentation of the self ("impression management', "social desirability") and systematic response patterns ("extreme response bias").

Between-Trial Forgetting Due to Interference and Time in Motor Adaptation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sungshin Kim

Full Text Available Learning a motor task with temporally spaced presentations or with other tasks intermixed between presentations reduces performance during training, but can enhance retention post training. These two effects are known as the spacing and contextual interference effect, respectively. Here, we aimed at testing a unifying hypothesis of the spacing and contextual interference effects in visuomotor adaptation, according to which forgetting between trials due to either spaced presentations or interference by another task will promote between-trial forgetting, which will depress performance during acquisition, but will promote retention. We first performed an experiment with three visuomotor adaptation conditions: a short inter-trial-interval (ITI condition (SHORT-ITI; a long ITI condition (LONG-ITI; and an alternating condition with two alternated opposite tasks (ALT, with the same single-task ITI as in LONG-ITI. In the SHORT-ITI condition, there was fastest increase in performance during training and largest immediate forgetting in the retention tests. In contrast, in the ALT condition, there was slowest increase in performance during training and little immediate forgetting in the retention tests. Compared to these two conditions, in the LONG-ITI, we found intermediate increase in performance during training and intermediate immediate forgetting. To account for these results, we fitted to the data six possible adaptation models with one or two time scales, and with interference in the fast, or in the slow, or in both time scales. Model comparison confirmed that two time scales and some degree of interferences in either time scale are needed to account for our experimental results. In summary, our results suggest that retention following adaptation is modulated by the degree of between-trial forgetting, which is due to time-based decay in single adaptation task and interferences in multiple adaptation tasks.

Chest Traumas due to Bicycle accident in Childhood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ufuk Cobanoglu

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Aim:Childhood injuries are the leading cause of death in children and result in significant healthcare utilization. Trauma is the second most common cause of mortality in children aged 1-4 years and leading cause of death in children older than 4 years. Thoracic injury is the second most leading cause of death in traumatized children. Multisystemic injury is found in more than 50% of children with thoracic injuries most of which are secondary to blunt traumas. We planned this study to evaluate thorax trauma cases secondary to bicycle driving in childhood and to draw attention to the importance of the regulation of traffic rules, the education of bicycle drivers.Material and Methods:  A retrospective evaluation was performed in 17 pediatric patients admitted to the Department of Thoracic Surgery during 2006-2010 with a diagnosis of chest trauma due to bicycle driving. For every patient, a pediatric trauma score (PTS was calculated. Descriptive statistics were performed for PTS. Results; Eleven (64.70% cases were injured due to the tricycle accidents and six cases 6 (35.29% were injured due to the two-wheeled bicycle accidents. The most frequent thoracic pathologies included pulmonary contusion (41.2% and chest wall contusion (29.41%. Extrathoracic injuries were seen in 35.29%, the extremities (17.64% and abdomino pelvic (11.76% being the most commonly involved. Treatment consisted of symptomatic treatment in 12 patients (70.58%, tube thoracostomy in 2 patients (11.76%, and thoracotomy in 1 patient (5.9%. The morbidity was seen in 3 patients (17.64%. The mortality rate was 5.9% (n:1. The mean PTS of the cases who had additional system injuries were significantly worse than the cases who had isolated chest traumas Conclusions: The pediatric thorax has a greater cartilage content and incomplete ossification of the ribs. Due to the pliability of the pediatric rib cage and mediastinal mobility, significant intrathoracic injury may exist in the

Staging of Hepatic Fibrosis: Comparison of Magnetic Resonance Elastography and Shear Wave Elastography in the Same Individuals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoon, Jeong Hee [Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744 (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Jeong Min [Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744 (Korea, Republic of); Institute of Radiation Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744 (Korea, Republic of); Woo, Hyun Sik; Yu, Mi Hye; Joo, Ijin; Lee, Eun Sun; Sohn, Ji Young [Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744 (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Kyung Boon [Department of Pathology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul 110-744 (Korea, Republic of); Han, Joon Koo; Choi, Byung Ihn [Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744 (Korea, Republic of); Institute of Radiation Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744 (Korea, Republic of)

2013-07-01

To cross-validate liver stiffness (LS) measured on shear wave elastography (SWE) and on magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in the same individuals. We included 94 liver transplantation (LT) recipients and 114 liver donors who underwent either MRE or SWE before surgery or biopsy. We determined the technical success rates and the incidence of unreliable LS measurements (LSM) of SWE and MRE. Among the 69 patients who underwent both MRE and SWE, the median and coefficient of variation (CV) of the LSM from each examination were compared and correlated. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve in both examinations were calculated in order to exclude the presence of hepatic fibrosis (HF). The technical success rates of MRE and SWE were 96.4% and 92.2%, respectively (p = 0.17), and all of the technical failures occurred in LT recipients. SWE showed 13.1% unreliable LSM, whereas MRE showed no such case (p < 0.05). There was moderate correlation in the LSM in both examinations (r = 0.67). SWE showed a significantly larger median LSM and CV than MRE. Both examinations showed similar diagnostic performance for excluding HF (Az; 0.989, 1.000, respectively). MRE and SWE show moderate correlation in their LSMs, although SWE shows higher incidence of unreliable LSMs in cirrhotic liver.

Occupational dose due to neutrons in medical linear accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larcher, Ana M.; Bonet Duran, Stella M.; Lerner, Ana M.

2000-01-01

This paper describes a semi-empirical method to calculate the occupational dose due to neutrons and capture gamma rays in medical linear accelerators. It compares theoretical dose values with measurements performed in several 15 MeV medical accelerators installed in the country. Good agreement has been found between calculations made using the model and dose measurements, except for those accelerator rooms in which the maze length was shorter than the postulated tenth value distance. For those cases the model seems to overestimate neutron dose. The results demonstrate that the semi-empirical model is a good tool for quick and conservative shielding calculations for radiation protection purposes. Nevertheless, it is necessary to continue with the measurements in order to perform a more accurate validation of the model. (author)

Secure Cooperative Spectrum Sensing via a Novel User-Classification Scheme in Cognitive Radios for Future Communication Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Usman

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Future communication networks would be required to deliver data on a far greater scale than is known to us today, thus mandating the maximal utilization of the available radio spectrum using cognitive radios. In this paper, we have proposed a novel cooperative spectrum sensing approach for cognitive radios. In cooperative spectrum sensing, the fusion center relies on reports of the cognitive users to make a global decision. The global decision is obtained by assigning weights to the reports received from cognitive users. Computation of such weights requires prior information of the probability of detection and the probability of false alarms, which are not readily available in real scenarios. Further, the cognitive users are divided into reliable and unreliable categories based on their weighted energy by using some empirical threshold. In this paper, we propose a method to classify the cognitive users into reliable, neutral and unreliable categories without using any pre-defined or empirically-obtained threshold. Moreover, the computation of weights does not require the detection, or false alarm probabilities, or an estimate of these probabilities. Reliable cognitive users are assigned the highest weights; neutral cognitive users are assigned medium weights (less than the reliable and higher than the unreliable cognitive users’ weights; and unreliable users are assigned the least weights. We show the performance improvement of our proposed method through simulations by comparing it with the conventional cooperative spectrum sensing scheme through different metrics, like receiver operating characteristic (ROC curve and mean square error. For clarity, we also show the effect of malicious users on detection probability and false alarm probability individually through simulations.

Thermoelectric properties control due to doping level and sintering conditions for FGM thermoelectric element

CERN Document Server

Kajikawa, T; Shiraishi, K; Ohmori, M; Hirai, T

1999-01-01

Thermoelectric performance is determined with three factors, namely, Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity. For metal and single crystalline semiconductor, those factors have close interrelation each $9 other. However, as the sintered thermoelectric element has various levels of superstructure from macro scale and micro scale in terms of the thermoelectric mechanism, the relationship among them is more complex than that for the $9 melt- grown element, so it is suggested that the control of the temperature dependence of thermoelectric properties is possible to enhance the thermoelectric performance for wide temperature range due to FGM approach. The research $9 objective is to investigate the characteristics of the thermoelectric properties for various doping levels and hot-pressed conditions to make the thermoelectric elements for which the temperature dependence of the performance is $9 controlled due to FGM approach varying the doping levels and sintering conditions. By usage ...

Short-Term Wind Power Forecasting Using the Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization Based Hybrid Method

OpenAIRE

Wen-Yeau Chang

2013-01-01

High penetration of wind power in the electricity system provides many challenges to power system operators, mainly due to the unpredictability and variability of wind power generation. Although wind energy may not be dispatched, an accurate forecasting method of wind speed and power generation can help power system operators reduce the risk of an unreliable electricity supply. This paper proposes an enhanced particle swarm optimization (EPSO) based hybrid forecasting method for short-term wi...

Parameter variation and scenario analysis in impact assessments of emerging energy technologies

OpenAIRE

Breunig, Hanna Marie

2015-01-01

There is a global need for energy technologies that reduce the adverse impacts of societal progress and that address today's challenges without creating tomorrow's problems. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) can support technology developers in achieving these prerequisites of sustainability by providing a systems perspective. However, modeling the early-stage scale up and impacts of technology systems may lead to unreliable or incomplete results due to a lack of representative technical, s...

Military Couples’ Experiences with Natural Family Planning

Science.gov (United States)

2001-05-01

method. Lack of endorsement was due to its unreliability for women with irregular cycles, and during breastfeeding (Geerling, 1995). It was known as...spoke to that one individual who knew my case. I used to mail in all of my charts monthly. They kept a count because I was very irregular . It was...of natural family planning in lactating women after the return of menses . American Journal of Obstetrics and Gvnecology. 165, 2037-2039. Natural

The effect of mandatory regulation on corporate social responsibility reporting quality: evidence from China

OpenAIRE

Wang, Jianling; Tian, Gaoliang; Fan, Weiguo; Luo, Dan

2017-01-01

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure has attracted attention from regulatory bodies and academics over the past few decades. Due to the unreliability resulted from CSR voluntary disclosure, an increasing number of researchers are calling for more government regulation on CSR disclosure. Based on 1830 standalone CSR reports disclosed by the Chinese-listed firms during 2009-2012, we examine the effect of mandatory regulation on CSR\\ud reporting quality. We further hypothesize and te...

School Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Héctor A. Lamas

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The school performance study of students is, due to its relevance and complexity, one of the issues of major controversy in the educational research, and it has been given special attention in the last decades. This study is intended to show a conceptual approach to the school performance construct, contextualizing the reality in the regular basic education classrooms. The construct of learning approaches is presented as one of the factors that influences the school performance of students. Besides, an outlook of the empirical research works related to variables that are presented as relevant when explaining the reason for a specific performance in students is shown. Finally, some models and techniques allowing an appropriate study of school performance are presented.

Control: Why, when and how? Some general principles of state control presented on the example of disqualification from performing commercial activities pursuant to § 35 of the German Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pürner Stefan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with issues relating to state control and state reaction to breaches of the rules discovered, using the example of Section 35 of the German Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act (§ 35 Gewerbeordnung, GewO. This provision is the central norm in German law, on the basis of which entrepreneurial activities can be prohibited. In the introduction, the author provides an overview of different forms of control and discusses the role of the courts in general, but also in the context of reviewing the control measures taken by the state. The author agrees that jurisprudence (case law is not a source of law in the countries of the European-Continental legal system. However, this should not lead to the wrong conclusion that the courts are neither qualified nor obliged to develop the law. After the introductory remarks, the author discusses the provisions contained in § 35 of the German Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act (Gewerbeordnung. This example is of particular interest as it demonstrates various general principles of state control over private activities. While the provision originally contained a casuistic enumeration of individual cases, it nowadays uses a blanket clause. Accordingly, the concept of Unzuverlässigkeit ('unreliability ', which is not defined in more detail is the definitional element for a disqualification from the practice of commercial activities. Hence, the courts' task in dealing with the respective cases has significantly changed, as the control process involves consideration of both public and private interests, as well as striking a fair balance between the opposing public and private interests. The author points out that this is also justified as the legislator can hardly foresee all cases to which the provision might appear in practice. In particular, the author points out that the German legislator, unlike the legislators in some transformation states, has opted for having as few

Influence of Force and Torque Feedback on Operator Performance in a VR-Based Suturing Task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Santos-Carreras

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The introduction of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS has revolutionised surgical care, considerably improving the quality of many surgical procedures. Technological advances, particularly in robotic surgery systems, have reduced the complexity of such an approach, paving the way for even less invasive surgical trends. However, the fact that haptic feedback has been progressively lost through this transition is an issue that to date has not been solved. Whereas traditional open surgery provides full haptic feedback, the introduction of MIS has eliminated the possibility of direct palpation and tactile exploration. Nevertheless, these procedures still provide a certain amount of force feedback through the rigid laparoscopic tool. Many of the current telemanipulated robotic surgical systems in return do not provide full haptic feedback, which to a certain extent can be explained by the requirement of force sensors integrated into the tools of the slave robot and actuators in the surgeon’s master console. In view of the increased complexity and cost, the benefit of haptic feedback is open to dispute. Nevertheless, studies have shown the importance of haptic feedback, especially when visual feedback is unreliable or absent. In order to explore the importance of haptic feedback for the surgeon’s master console of a novel teleoperated robotic surgical system, we have identified a typical surgical task where performance could potentially be improved by haptic feedback, and investigate performance with and without this feedback. Two rounds of experiments are performed with 10 subjects, six of them with a medical background. Results show that feedback conditions, including force feedback, significantly improve task performance independently of the operator’s suturing experience. There is, however, no further significant improvement when torque feedback is added. Consequently, it is deduced that force feedback in translations improves subject�

Performance Evaluation of a Nanofluid-Based Direct Absorption Solar Collector with Parabolic Trough Concentrator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guoying Xu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Application of solar collectors for hot water supply, space heating, and cooling plays a significant role in reducing building energy consumption. For conventional solar collectors, solar radiation is absorbed by spectral selective coating on the collectors’ tube/plate wall. The poor durability of the coating can lead to an increased manufacturing cost and unreliability for a solar collector operated at a higher temperature. Therefore, a novel nanofluid-based direct absorption solar collector (NDASC employing uncoated collector tubes has been proposed, and its operating characteristics for medium-temperature solar collection were theoretically and experimentally studied in this paper. CuO/oil nanofluid was prepared and used as working fluid of the NDASC. The heat-transfer mechanism of the NDASC with parabolic trough concentrator was theoretically evaluated and compared with a conventional indirect absorption solar collector (IASC. The theoretical analysis results suggested that the fluid’s temperature distribution in the NDASC was much more uniform than that in the IASC, and an enhanced collection efficiency could be achieved for the NDASC operated within a preferred working temperature range. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed NDASC, experimental performances of an NDASC and an IASC with the same parabolic trough concentrator were furthermore evaluated and comparatively discussed.

Performance Evaluation of a Nanofluid-Based Direct Absorption Solar Collector with Parabolic Trough Concentrator

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Guoying; Chen, Wei; Deng, Shiming; Zhang, Xiaosong; Zhao, Sainan

2015-01-01

Application of solar collectors for hot water supply, space heating, and cooling plays a significant role in reducing building energy consumption. For conventional solar collectors, solar radiation is absorbed by spectral selective coating on the collectors’ tube/plate wall. The poor durability of the coating can lead to an increased manufacturing cost and unreliability for a solar collector operated at a higher temperature. Therefore, a novel nanofluid-based direct absorption solar collector (NDASC) employing uncoated collector tubes has been proposed, and its operating characteristics for medium-temperature solar collection were theoretically and experimentally studied in this paper. CuO/oil nanofluid was prepared and used as working fluid of the NDASC. The heat-transfer mechanism of the NDASC with parabolic trough concentrator was theoretically evaluated and compared with a conventional indirect absorption solar collector (IASC). The theoretical analysis results suggested that the fluid’s temperature distribution in the NDASC was much more uniform than that in the IASC, and an enhanced collection efficiency could be achieved for the NDASC operated within a preferred working temperature range. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed NDASC, experimental performances of an NDASC and an IASC with the same parabolic trough concentrator were furthermore evaluated and comparatively discussed. PMID:28347112

Influence of binary mask estimation errors on robust speaker identification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

May, Tobias

2017-01-01

Missing-data strategies have been developed to improve the noise-robustness of automatic speech recognition systems in adverse acoustic conditions. This is achieved by classifying time-frequency (T-F) units into reliable and unreliable components, as indicated by a so-called binary mask. Different...... approaches have been proposed to handle unreliable feature components, each with distinct advantages. The direct masking (DM) approach attenuates unreliable T-F units in the spectral domain, which allows the extraction of conventionally used mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs). Instead of attenuating....... Since each of these approaches utilizes the knowledge about reliable and unreliable feature components in a different way, they will respond differently to estimation errors in the binary mask. The goal of this study was to identify the most effective strategy to exploit knowledge about reliable...

[Intestinal intussusception due to ileal gastrointestinal stromal tumor--a case report].

Science.gov (United States)

Andrei, S; Andrei, A; Tonea, A; Andronesi, D; Preda, C; Herlea, V; Popescu, I

2011-01-01

Intestinal occlusion due to intussusception produced by intestinal tumors is a very rare condition. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors are also rare digestive neopasias, with an impredictable malignant behavior, which are usually growing outside the intestinal wall, being rarely the initiators of an intestinal intussusception. We present the case of a 59 years old female, admitted in our hospital to elucidate the etiology of her iron deficient anaemia, which developed an intestinal occlusion at the intestinal preparation for colonoscopy. The abdominal CT scan performed in emergency conditions highlighted occlusive intestinal tumor complicated with intestinal intussusception. We performed an emergency laparotomy that revealed intestinal occlusion due to ileo-ileal intussusception produced by an ileal tumor. The surgical intervention consisted in segmental ileal enterectomy including the tumor with latero-lateral entero-enteral anastomosis. The patient recovered without complications. The histopathological and immunohisto-chemical examinations established the diagnose of gastro-intestinal stromal tumor with high risk malignant behavior, therefore the patient was guided in the oncological department for specific treatment and oncological surveillance.

Children's selective trust decisions: rational competence and limiting performance factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Hermes, Jonas; Behne, Tanya; Bich, Anna Elisa; Thielert, Christa; Rakoczy, Hannes

2018-03-01

Recent research has amply documented that even preschoolers learn selectively from others, preferring, for example, reliable over unreliable and competent over incompetent models. It remains unclear, however, what the cognitive foundations of such selective learning are, in particular, whether it builds on rational inferences or on less sophisticated processes. The current study, therefore, was designed to test directly the possibility that children are in principle capable of selective learning based on rational inference, yet revert to simpler strategies such as global impression formation under certain circumstances. Preschoolers (N = 75) were shown pairs of models that either differed in their degree of competence within one domain (strong vs. weak or knowledgeable vs. ignorant) or were both highly competent, but in different domains (e.g., strong vs. knowledgeable model). In the test trials, children chose between the models for strength- or knowledge-related tasks. The results suggest that, in fact, children are capable of rational inference-based selective trust: when both models were highly competent, children preferred the model with the competence most predictive and relevant for a given task. However, when choosing between two models that differed in competence on one dimension, children reverted to halo-style wide generalizations and preferred the competent models for both relevant and irrelevant tasks. These findings suggest that the rational strategies for selective learning, that children master in principle, can get masked by various performance factors. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Validation of neutron flux redistribution factors in JSI TRIGA reactor due to control rod movements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaiba, Tanja; Žerovnik, Gašper; Jazbec, Anže; Štancar, Žiga; Barbot, Loïc; Fourmentel, Damien; Snoj, Luka

2015-01-01

For efficient utilization of research reactors, such as TRIGA Mark II reactor in Ljubljana, it is important to know neutron flux distribution in the reactor as accurately as possible. The focus of this study is on the neutron flux redistributions due to control rod movements. For analyzing neutron flux redistributions, Monte Carlo calculations of fission rate distributions with the JSI TRIGA reactor model at different control rod configurations have been performed. Sensitivity of the detector response due to control rod movement have been studied. Optimal radial and axial positions of the detector have been determined. Measurements of the axial neutron flux distribution using the CEA manufactured fission chambers have been performed. The experiments at different control rod positions were conducted and compared with the MCNP calculations for a fixed detector axial position. In the future, simultaneous on-line measurements with multiple fission chambers will be performed inside the reactor core for a more accurate on-line power monitoring system. - Highlights: • Neutron flux redistribution due to control rod movement in JSI TRIGA has been studied. • Detector response sensitivity to the control rod position has been minimized. • Optimal radial and axial detector positions have been determined

Toxic keratopathy due to abuse of topical anesthetic drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Yeniad, Baris; Canturk, Serife; Esin Ozdemir, Fatma; Alparslan, Nilufer; Akarcay, Koray

2010-06-01

To describe 8 cases of toxic keratopathy due to abuse of topical anesthetic drugs. Clinical findings from patients with toxic keratopathy were investigated retrospectively. Two patients had toxic keratopathy bilaterally. Five of 8 patients had an ocular history of a corneal foreign body, 1 had basal membrane dystrophy, 1 had ultraviolet radiation, and 1 had chemical burn. All patients had undergone psychiatric consultation. Four patients had anxiety disorder and 1 had bipolar disease. Clinical signs were improved in all patients with discontinuation of topical anesthetic drug use along with adjunctive psychiatric treatment. Penetrating keratoplasty was performed in 2 patients. Toxic keratopathy due to topical anesthetic abuse is a curable disease. Early diagnosis and prevention of topical anesthetic drug use are the most important steps in the treatment of this condition. As these patients commonly exhibit psychiatric disorders, adjunctive psychiatric treatment may help to break the chemical addiction.

Comparison of Educational Inspectors' Role of Program Leadership in the Foundation Period of Republic of Turkey with Today

Science.gov (United States)

Usta, Mehmet Emin

2018-01-01

From the very early periods of accepting management as a science, main goal of inspection is seen as a control mechanism. Classical management approach evaluated staff as people who need strict inspections by experts to better perform since they are perceived as unreliable and irresponsible on their duties. Later on, expertise areas related to…

VSMURF: A Novel Sliding Window Cleaning Algorithm for RFID Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

He Xu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Radio Frequency Identification (RFID is one of the key technologies of the Internet of Things (IoT and is used in many areas, such as mobile payments, public transportation, smart lock, and environment protection. However, the performance of RFID equipment can be easily affected by the surrounding environment, such as electronic productions and metal appliances. These can impose an impact on the RF signal, which makes the collection of RFID data unreliable. Usually, the unreliability of RFID source data includes three aspects: false negatives, false positives, and dirty data. False negatives are the key problem, as the probability of false positives and dirty data occurrence is relatively small. This paper proposes a novel sliding window cleaning algorithm called VSMURF, which is based on the traditional SMURF algorithm which combines the dynamic change of tags and the value analysis of confidence. Experimental results show that VSMURF algorithm performs better in most conditions and when the tag’s speed is low or high. In particular, if the velocity parameter is set to 2 m/epoch, our proposed VSMURF algorithm performs better than SMURF. The results also show that VSMURF algorithm has better performance than other algorithms in solving the problem of false negatives for RFID networks.

A primer on counterparty valuation adjustments in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gary Wayne van Vuuren

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Counterparty valuation adjustment (CVA risk accounts for losses due to the deterioration in credit quality of derivative counterparties with large credit spreads. Of the losses attributed to counterparty credit risk incurred during the financial crisis of 2008-9 were due to CVA risk; the remaining third were due to actual defaults. Regulatory authorities have acknowledged and included this risk in the new Basel III rules. The capital implications of CVA risk in the South African milieu are explored, as well as the sensitivity of CVA risk components to market variables. Proposed methodologies for calculating changes in CVA are found to be unstable and unreliable at high average spread levels.

System Study: Emergency Power System 1998–2013

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schroeder, John Alton [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States). Risk Assessment and Management Services Dept.

2015-02-01

This report presents an unreliability evaluation of the emergency power system (EPS) at 104 U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Demand, run hours, and failure data from fiscal year 1998 through 2013 for selected components were obtained from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Consolidated Events Database (ICES). The unreliability results are trended for the most recent 10-year period, while yearly estimates for system unreliability are provided for the entire active period. No statistically significant trends were identified in the EPS results.

System Study: Auxiliary Feedwater 1998-2014

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schroeder, John Alton [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States). Risk Assessment and Management Services Dept.

2015-12-01

This report presents an unreliability evaluation of the auxiliary feedwater (AFW) system at 69 U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Demand, run hours, and failure data from fiscal year 1998 through 2014 for selected components were obtained from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Consolidated Events Database (ICES). The unreliability results are trended for the most recent 10 year period, while yearly estimates for system unreliability are provided for the entire active period. No statistically significant increasing or decreasing trends were identified in the AFW results.

A study on hydrogen burn due to the operation of containment spray system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, S.Y.; Kim, D.H.; Jin, Y.; Park, C.K.

1995-01-01

The bounding calculation for inflammable gas combustion due to the steam condensation by the operation of the containment spray system was performed. Sensitivity study was performed for two initiating events, station blackout and loss of coolant accident. The parameters for sensitivity study are the condition of cavity, wet or dry, and the timing of operation of the containment spray system. It is shown, based on MAAP4 analyses, that: for dry cavity, auto-ignition burn and hydrogen laden jet burn due to the high temperature in the reactor cavity consumes large amount of burnable gas in the containment and reduces the peak pressure at the global burn by flammability criteria; for wet cavity, large amount of hydrogen and carbon monoxide are generated after dryout of the reactor cavity, but burn is prohibited due to the low gas temperature in the high concentration of the steam. The late operation of the containment spray system condenses the steam rapidly, which results in the global burn at high concentration of burnable gas in the containment. The containment peak pressure from this burn is determined to be high enough to threaten the containment integrity significantly. (author). 3 refs., 3 tabs

Diplopia due to Dacryops

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rahmi Duman

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Dacryops is a lacrimal ductal cyst. It is known that it can cause globe displacement, motility restriction, and proptosis because of the mass effect. Diplopia due to dacryops has not been reported previously. Here, we present a 57-year-old man with binocular horizontal diplopia that occurred during left direction gaze due to dacryops.

Towards Reliable Evaluation of Anomaly-Based Intrusion Detection Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Viswanathan, Arun

2012-01-01

variability in training data for anomaly detectors, but has ignored variability in the attack signal that will necessarily affect the evaluation results for such detectors. We posit that current evaluation strategies implicitly assume that attacks always manifest in a stable manner; we show that this assumption is wrong. We describe a simple experiment to demonstrate the effects of environmental noise on the manifestation of attacks in data and introduce the notion of attack manifestation stability. Finally, we argue that conclusions about detector performance will be unreliable and incomplete if the stability of attack manifestation is not accounted for in the evaluation strategy.

MR imaging of intramedullary ischemia due to cervical spondylosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dooms, G.; Mathurin, P.; Cornelis, G.; Hulcelle, P.

1988-01-01

A retrospective study was performed to assess the value of MR imaging for detecting intramedullary ischemia due to cervical spondylosis and to assess its clinical significance. One hundred consecutive unselected patients (70 men and 30 women, mean age = 62 years) were included in the study. All patients were treated surgically, either by anterior diskectomy and corporectomy or by posterior laminectomy. Clinical follow-up to 2 years was available for every patient. MR imaging was performed with a superconducting magnet (Philips Gyroscan S15) operating at 1.5T Sagittal T1-weighted (repetition time [TR] = 0.45 sec and echo time [TE] = 30 msec) and cardiac-gated T2-weighted (TR>1.2 sec and multiples TE of 50, 100 and 200 msc) imaging was performed in every patient. Cervical spondylosis was exquisitely demonstrated on MR images in every patient. With the sagittal plane, full extent and the degree of canalar stenosis were easily appreciated on T2-weighted images. A hyperintense intramedullary lesion was detected preoperatively in 24 of the patients and corresponded presumably to ischemic, edematous, and/or necrotic damage to the cord. It was usually located at the level or just below the level where the most severe canalar stenosis was demonstrated; it was identified only on T2-weighted images. In a comparison of the clinical outcome of the patients after surgery, there was a striking difference between the group of patients without and that with intramedullary lesions. In the first group, the relief of symptoms after surgery was partial or complete. In the other group, the clinical outcome was poor and symptom relief nearly absent. In conclusion, MR imaging is an exquisite modality for demonstrating necrotic intramedullary changes due to cervical spondylosis and thus may aid in determining the prognosis for surgery and clinical outcome of the patients

Lüge, Täuschung und Verwirrung. Unzuverlässiges und ‚verstörendes Erzählen‘ in Literatur und Film

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabine Schlickers

2015-06-01

Full Text Available My contribution aims to modify current concepts of unreliable narration in literature and film. Although in film studies it is more common to talk of mind-game movies, this notion is not synonymous with unreliable narration: mind-game movies are films which question (the perception of reality through the deployment of  various specific ambiguities, whereas unreliable narration excludes – in my definition – the ambiguity by using an unexpected plot twist. In order to account for all narrative techniques which produce strange effects and call attention to themselves, I introduce the new concept of perturbatory narration. Conceived of as a transmedial and transgeneric mode of narration, this umbrella term includes the interplay of unreliable and paradoxical narration (i.e. metalepsis, certain forms of mise en abyme, self-begetting novels, Möbius strips etc., explicit metafiction as well as Fantastic Narration. Each of these disturbs the reader’s or viewer’s process of orientation within the fictional world, which can result in either stronger immersion or, on the contrary, a breach of the aesthetic illusion. Based on a typology of unreliable narration, my analysis of three films of the new Argentine cinema aims to show this typology’s validity, but also its limits: elements of the paradoxical and fantastic which are intertwined with the unreliable narration point to  the necessity of a new, broader narratological concept, one which could then be described as perturbatory narration.

Finanční due diligence

OpenAIRE

Slonka, Tomáš

2015-01-01

Thesis on financial due diligence focuses on the use of due diligence in practice. The aim of this work is to determine the risk for the investor and the calculation of the target company with and without conducting due diligence, thus finding out the added value of due diligence.

5 CFR 732.301 - Due process.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Due process. 732.301 Section 732.301...) NATIONAL SECURITY POSITIONS Due Process and Reporting § 732.301 Due process. When an agency makes an... any determination. (b) Comply with all applicable administrative due process requirements, as provided...

Human due diligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Harding, David; Rouse, Ted

2007-04-01

Most companies do a thorough job of financial due diligence when they acquire other companies. But all too often, deal makers simply ignore or underestimate the significance of people issues in mergers and acquisitions. The consequences are severe. Most obviously, there's a high degree of talent loss after a deal's announcement. To make matters worse, differences in decision-making styles lead to infighting; integration stalls; and productivity declines. The good news is that human due diligence can help companies avoid these problems. Done early enough, it helps acquirers decide whether to embrace or kill a deal and determine the price they are willing to pay. It also lays the groundwork for smooth integration. When acquirers have done their homework, they can uncover capability gaps, points of friction, and differences in decision making. Even more important, they can make the critical "people" decisions-who stays, who goes, who runs the combined business, what to do with the rank and file-at the time the deal is announced or shortly thereafter. Making such decisions within the first 30 days is critical to the success of a deal. Hostile situations clearly make things more difficult, but companies can and must still do a certain amount of human due diligence to reduce the inevitable fallout from the acquisition process and smooth the integration. This article details the steps involved in conducting human due diligence. The approach is structured around answering five basic questions: Who is the cultural acquirer? What kind of organization do you want? Will the two cultures mesh? Who are the people you most want to retain? And how will rank-and-file employees react to the deal? Unless an acquiring company has answered these questions to its satisfaction, the acquisition it is making will be very likely to end badly.

System Study: High-Pressure Safety Injection 1998-2014

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schroeder, John Alton [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States). Risk Assessment and Management Services Dept.

2015-12-01

This report presents an unreliability evaluation of the high-pressure safety injection system (HPSI) at 69 U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Demand, run hours, and failure data from fiscal year 1998 through 2014 for selected components were obtained from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Consolidated Events Database (ICES). The unreliability results are trended for the most recent 10 year period, while yearly estimates for system unreliability are provided for the entire active period. No statistically significant increasing or decreasing trends were identified in the HPSI results.

Maximum Likelihood Approach for RFID Tag Set Cardinality Estimation with Detection Errors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nguyen, Chuyen T.; Hayashi, Kazunori; Kaneko, Megumi

2013-01-01

Abstract Estimation schemes of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag set cardinality are studied in this paper using Maximum Likelihood (ML) approach. We consider the estimation problem under the model of multiple independent reader sessions with detection errors due to unreliable radio...... is evaluated under dierent system parameters and compared with that of the conventional method via computer simulations assuming flat Rayleigh fading environments and framed-slotted ALOHA based protocol. Keywords RFID tag cardinality estimation maximum likelihood detection error...

Determinants of value added tax revenue in Kenya

OpenAIRE

WAWIRE, Nelson

2017-01-01

Abstract. Past studies that have been undertaken on the responsiveness of Value Added Tax revenues to changes in GDP in Kenya have found a positive relationship. However, the studies omit key determinants of tax revenues, such as the nature of the tax system, institutional, demographic and structural features of the economy. Due to this omission, the estimated income elasticities are unreliable for planning purposes, a situation that might be responsible for the recurring budget deficits. The...

Divorce: An Unreliable Predictor of Children's Emotional Predispositions.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernard, Janine M.; Nesbitt, Sally

1981-01-01

Used the Children's Emotion Projection Instrument to investigate the emotional predispositions of children from divorce or disruption and children from intact families. Results indicated that children of divorce or disruption are not more hampered emotionally than children from intact families. Discusses implications for family therapists.…

Unreliable alcohol testing in a shipping safety programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Helander, Anders; Hagelberg, Charlotte Asker; Beck, Olof; Petrini, Björn

2009-08-10

Within a maritime alcohol and drug testing programme, a case showing an unphysiological urine ethanol concentration (235 mmol/L, 10.8 g/L) was found. The sample contained low levels of the ethanol metabolites ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulphate (EtS) which confirmed prior drinking, but also tested positive for the fermenting yeast Candida albicans which suggested post-sampling ethanol formation. This and other questionable cases prompted investigation of the suitability of urine alcohol testing for the intended application. Besides the routine measurements of ethanol, illicit drugs and creatinine, randomly selected ethanol-positive and ethanol-negative urines collected within the maritime programme were checked for the presence of EtG and EtS and for fungal and bacterial growth. Data on sample handling and storage was also gathered. Ten of 15 (67%) ethanol-positive and 4 of 9 (44%) ethanol-negative urines contained yeast and/or bacteria. Among the ethanol-positive cases, 4 (27%) were obviously false positives because EtG and EtS were not detected. Microbial action as the reason for false-high ethanol concentrations was indicated in other cases. When 17 bacteria-infected but fungi-negative urines were supplemented with glucose and stored for 1 week at 21 degrees C, ethanol was formed in 2 specimens containing Escherichia coli and E. coli plus P. aeruginosa. In these samples, EtG was also formed on storage while EtS was not. The routines employed for urine collection and handling within this substance abuse programme caused many false-positive identifications of alcohol use with unintended medico-legal consequences. Unpreserved urines stored without cooling should not be used for alcohol testing, given the high risk for microbial interference.

Season is an unreliable predictor of Lyme neuroborreliosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Bo Bødker; Møller, Jens Kjølseth; Vilholm, Ole Jakob

2015-01-01

on the seasonal variation, anamnesis, symptoms, laboratory data and course of the disease in adults (≥ 16 years). METHODS: The medical records of 69 patients with confirmed LNB who attended the Department of Neurology, Lillebaelt Hospital, Vejle, Denmark, were analysed. The diagnosis was confirmed by the presence...

Benchmarking and Performance Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian TANTAU

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The relevance of the chosen topic is explained by the meaning of the firm efficiency concept - the firm efficiency means the revealed performance (how well the firm performs in the actual market environment given the basic characteristics of the firms and their markets that are expected to drive their profitability (firm size, market power etc.. This complex and relative performance could be due to such things as product innovation, management quality, work organization, some other factors can be a cause even if they are not directly observed by the researcher. The critical need for the management individuals/group to continuously improve their firm/company’s efficiency and effectiveness, the need for the managers to know which are the success factors and the competitiveness determinants determine consequently, what performance measures are most critical in determining their firm’s overall success. Benchmarking, when done properly, can accurately identify both successful companies and the underlying reasons for their success. Innovation and benchmarking firm level performance are critical interdependent activities. Firm level variables, used to infer performance, are often interdependent due to operational reasons. Hence, the managers need to take the dependencies among these variables into account when forecasting and benchmarking performance. This paper studies firm level performance using financial ratio and other type of profitability measures. It uses econometric models to describe and then propose a method to forecast and benchmark performance.

A robust ridge regression approach in the presence of both multicollinearity and outliers in the data

Science.gov (United States)

Shariff, Nurul Sima Mohamad; Ferdaos, Nur Aqilah

2017-08-01

Multicollinearity often leads to inconsistent and unreliable parameter estimates in regression analysis. This situation will be more severe in the presence of outliers it will cause fatter tails in the error distributions than the normal distributions. The well-known procedure that is robust to multicollinearity problem is the ridge regression method. This method however is expected to be affected by the presence of outliers due to some assumptions imposed in the modeling procedure. Thus, the robust version of existing ridge method with some modification in the inverse matrix and the estimated response value is introduced. The performance of the proposed method is discussed and comparisons are made with several existing estimators namely, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), ridge regression and robust ridge regression based on GM-estimates. The finding of this study is able to produce reliable parameter estimates in the presence of both multicollinearity and outliers in the data.

Total Pancreatic Fracture Due to Blunt Trauma: Report of a Rare Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kamil Gulpinar

2016-05-01

Full Text Available A rare case of pancreatic fracture due to blunt trauma was presented. The patient was 70 year old male who had a motor vehicle collision and was suspected a pancreatic trauma due his examinations with ultrasound and computerized tomography. The diagnosis of splenic injury and pancreas body total fracture in the point where the portal vein crosses the pancreatic body was made with the help of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography. He was taken to emergency surgery where a splenectomy and a distal pancreatectomy were performed. We represented this infrequent case of pancreatic fracture and its complications after blunt abdominal trauma and discuss the diagnostic and management practices.

Premarital sexual relationships: Contraceptive knowledge and practice among iranian youths

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fariba Taleghani

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: The youths' sexual behaviors are counted as the main priorities of the public health due to the high prevalence of unwanted pregnancies, illegal abortions, and sexually transmitted infections. This research was carried out to explain the youths' contraceptive knowledge and practice in premarital sexual relationships. Methods: This qualitative research was carried out on 30 single boys and girls aged 18–24, living in Isfahan, Iran, who had already started sexual activities. Data collection was done with semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed by using conventional content analysis. Results: Two main categories were extracted including inadequate awareness regarding contraception (with subcategories “unreliable information sources” and “gender inequality in familiarity with contraceptive methods” and inappropriate contraceptive practice (with sub-categories “use of unreliable contraceptive methods” and “gender inequality in applying contraceptive methods”. Conclusion: Sexual health education programs should equip the youths with adequate knowledge on contraception and use of reliable contraceptive methods. Furthermore, attempts should be made along with tackling gender inequality is very significant for youths' sexual and reproductive health security.

Diabetes due to recurrent pancreatitis secondary to hypercalcemia due to primary hyperparathyroidism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sumit Kumar Chakrabarti

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Acute pancreatitis due to hypercalcemia associated with hyperparathyroidism (HPT is not very common. We herein report a case of a 21-year-old woman, who presented with acute pancreatitis. She had a past history of recurrent nephrolithiasis. Subsequent evaluation revealed hypercalcemia (serum calcium: 12.6 mg/dL; low phosphate (2.9 mg/dL with elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH, 156.7 pg/mL and HbA1c (6.9%. Diagnosis of primary HPT (PHPT was made. Recurrent pancreatitis due to hypercalcemia may have resulted in diabetes mellitus.

Effects on automatic attention due to exposure to pictures of emotional faces while performing Chinese word judgment tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Junhong, Huang; Renlai, Zhou; Senqi, Hu

2013-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition.

Deference and Due Process

OpenAIRE

Vermeule, Cornelius Adrian

2015-01-01

In the textbooks, procedural due process is a strictly judicial enterprise; although substantive entitlements are created by legislative and executive action, it is for courts to decide independently what process the Constitution requires. The notion that procedural due process might be committed primarily to the discretion of the agencies themselves is almost entirely absent from the academic literature. The facts on the ground are very different. Thanks to converging strands of caselaw ...

Sensitivity of Process Design due to Uncertainties in Property Estimates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hukkerikar, Amol; Jones, Mark Nicholas; Sarup, Bent

2012-01-01

The objective of this paper is to present a systematic methodology for performing analysis of sensitivity of process design due to uncertainties in property estimates. The methodology provides the following results: a) list of properties with critical importance on design; b) acceptable levels of...... in chemical processes. Among others vapour pressure accuracy for azeotropic mixtures is critical and needs to be measured or estimated with a ±0.25% accuracy to satisfy acceptable safety levels in design....

Attitude-independent magnetometer calibration for marine magnetic surveys: regularization issue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Zhitian; Hu, Xiaoping; Wu, Meiping; Cao, Juliang

2013-01-01

We have developed an attitude-independent calibration method for a shipboard magnetometer to estimate the absolute strength of the geomagnetic field from a marine vessel. The three-axis magnetometer to be calibrated is fixed on a rigid aluminium boom ahead of the vessel to reduce the magnetic effect of the vessel. Due to the constrained manoeuvres of the vessel, a linear observational equation system for calibration parameter estimation is severely ill-posed. Consequently, if the issue is not mitigated, traditional calibration methods may result in unreliable or unsuccessful solutions. In this paper, the ill-posed problem is solved by using the truncated total least squares (TTLS) technique. This method takes advantage of simultaneously considering errors on both sides of the observation equation. Furthermore, the TTLS method suits strongly ill-posed problems. Simulations and experiments have been performed to assess the performance of the TTLS method and to compare it with the performance of conventional regularization approaches such as the Tikhonov method and truncated single value decomposition. The results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively mitigate the ill-posed problem and is more stable than the compared regularization methods for magnetometer calibration applications. (paper)

Best-Matched Internal Standard Normalization in Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Metabolomics Applied to Environmental Samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Boysen, Angela K; Heal, Katherine R; Carlson, Laura T; Ingalls, Anitra E

2018-01-16

The goal of metabolomics is to measure the entire range of small organic molecules in biological samples. In liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, formidable analytical challenges remain in removing the nonbiological factors that affect chromatographic peak areas. These factors include sample matrix-induced ion suppression, chromatographic quality, and analytical drift. The combination of these factors is referred to as obscuring variation. Some metabolomics samples can exhibit intense obscuring variation due to matrix-induced ion suppression, rendering large amounts of data unreliable and difficult to interpret. Existing normalization techniques have limited applicability to these sample types. Here we present a data normalization method to minimize the effects of obscuring variation. We normalize peak areas using a batch-specific normalization process, which matches measured metabolites with isotope-labeled internal standards that behave similarly during the analysis. This method, called best-matched internal standard (B-MIS) normalization, can be applied to targeted or untargeted metabolomics data sets and yields relative concentrations. We evaluate and demonstrate the utility of B-MIS normalization using marine environmental samples and laboratory grown cultures of phytoplankton. In untargeted analyses, B-MIS normalization allowed for inclusion of mass features in downstream analyses that would have been considered unreliable without normalization due to obscuring variation. B-MIS normalization for targeted or untargeted metabolomics is freely available at https://github.com/IngallsLabUW/B-MIS-normalization .

Two cases of death due to plastic bag suffocation.

Science.gov (United States)

Nadesan, K; Beng, O B

2001-01-01

Deaths due to plastic bag suffocation or plastic bag asphyxia are not reported in Malaysia. In the West many suicides by plastic bag asphyxia, particularly in the elderly and those who are chronically and terminally ill, have been reported. Accidental deaths too are not uncommon in the West, both among small children who play with shopping bags and adolescents who are solvent abusers. Another well-known but not so common form of accidental death from plastic bag asphyxia is sexual asphyxia, which is mostly seen among adult males. Homicide by plastic bag asphyxia too is reported in the West and the victims are invariably infants or adults who are frail or terminally ill and who cannot struggle. Two deaths due to plastic bag asphyxia are presented. Both the autopsies were performed at the University Hospital Mortuary, Kuala Lumpur. Both victims were 50-year old married Chinese males. One death was diagnosed as suicide and the other as sexual asphyxia. Sexual asphyxia is generally believed to be a problem associated exclusively with the West. Specific autopsy findings are often absent in deaths due to plastic bag asphyxia and therefore such deaths could be missed when some interested parties have altered the scene and most importantly have removed the plastic bag. A visit to the scene of death is invariably useful.

A shortened version of the THERP/Handbook approach to human reliability analysis for probabilistic risk assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swain, A.D.

1986-01-01

The approach to human reliability analysis (HRA) known as THERP/Handbook has been applied to several probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs) of nuclear power plants (NPPs) and other complex systems. The approach is based on a thorough task analysis of the man-machine interfaces, including the interactions among the people, involved in the operations being assessed. The idea is to assess fully the underlying performance shaping factors (PSFs) and dependence effects which result either in reliable or unreliable human performance

Analysis of influence on back-EMF based sensorless control of PMSM due to parameter variations and measurement errors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Z.; Lu, K.; Ye, Y.

2011-01-01

To achieve better performance of sensorless control of PMSM, a precise and stable estimation of rotor position and speed is required. Several parameter uncertainties and variable measurement errors may lead to estimation error, such as resistance and inductance variations due to temperature...... and flux saturation, current and voltage errors due to measurement uncertainties, and signal delay caused by hardwares. This paper reveals some inherent principles for the performance of the back-EMF based sensorless algorithm embedded in a surface mounted PMSM system adapting vector control strategy...

Qubit dephasing due to quasiparticle tunneling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zanker, Sebastian; Marthaler, Michael; Schoen, Gerd [Institut fuer Theoretische Festkoerperphysik, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, D-76128 Karlsruhe (Germany)

2015-07-01

We study dephasing of a superconducting qubit due to quasiparticle tunneling through a Josephson junction. While qubit decay due to tunneling processes is well understood within a golden rule approximation, pure dephasing due to BCS quasiparticles gives rise to a divergent golden rule rate. We calculate qubit dephasing due to quasiparticle tunneling beyond lowest order approximation in coupling between qubit and quasiparticles. Summing up a certain class of diagrams we show that qubit dephasing due to purely longitudinal coupling to quasiparticles leads to dephasing ∝ exp(-x(t)) where x(t) ∝ t{sup 3/2} for short time scales and x(t) ∝ tlog(t) for long time scales.

Anaphylaxis due to caffeine

OpenAIRE

Sugiyama, Kumiya; Cho, Tatsurai; Tatewaki, Masamitsu; Onishi, Shogo; Yokoyama, Tatsuya; Yoshida, Naruo; Fujimatsu, Takayoshi; Hirata, Hirokuni; Fukuda, Takeshi; Fukushima, Yasutsugu

2015-01-01

We report a rare case of anaphylaxis due to caffeine intake. A 27-year-old woman suffered her first episode of anaphylaxis and a positive skin prick test suggested that the anaphylaxis was due to an IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reaction to caffeine. She was diagnosed with caffeine allergy and has not had an allergic reaction after avoiding foods and drinks containing caffeine. Although caffeine is known to have antiallergic effects, this case shows that caffeine can be an allergen and cause ...

[Massive increase of foetal abdominal circumference due to hereditary polycystic kidney disease].

Science.gov (United States)

Dukic, L; Schaffelder, R; Schaible, T; Sütterlin, M; Siemer, J

2010-06-01

Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) is a rare condition with a poor prognosis. We report on a 30-year-old primagravid woman in the 34th) week of gestation who was admitted to our hospital. ARPKD of the foetus had been sonographically suspected since the 26th week of gestation. Ultrasound examination showed big polycystic kidneys on both sides. The non-consanguineous parents wanted a maximum therapy for the infant. Foetal digitalisation because of heart insufficiency and prophylactic lung maturation was started. In the further course, Doppler sonographic values worsened and a Caesarean section was performed in the 34th week of gestation at the demand of the parents and due to the expected problems in case of a vaginal delivery. The weight of the newborn was 3,780 g and the abdominal circumference was 50 cm. The newborn was intubated immediately after birth and artificial ventilation was performed. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was not possible due to the bad cardial condition. The boy died 16 h after delivery. The parents refused genetic examination and autopsy of the newborn. ARPKD is a severe disease that may have obstetric relevance, due to the massively increased abdominal circumference. Therefore, termination of pregnancy or preterm induction of labor should be considered in order to avoid Caesarean section. Additionally, early prenatal diagnosis with genetic analysis of PRKD1 in cases of suspected ARPKD can be helpful. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart, New York.

Customer Satisfaction with Air Force Civil Engineering Support

Science.gov (United States)

1988-09-01

organization seeking to promote customer satisfaction. The answer is yes to both. Through advertising and interaction with consumers , companies...Many companies manage customer expectations by overpromising performance through unreliable and sometimes intentionally misleading advertising . Many... customers ’ expectations by only advertising and making commitments they can meet. Then they do whatever it takes to keep their word (Lele, 1987: 148

A Framework for Operational Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Porsgaard, Chris Berg; Haubjerg, Mathias; Herbert-Hansen, Zaza Nadja Lee

The number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has over the last five years increased greatly (Institute of Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances, 2016). Furthermore, private equity professionals point to operational performance gains to drive an acquisition decision and attribute cost reductions...... as the most important lever for value creation, after a private equity firm acquires a company (PwC, 2016). However, the overall success rate of M&A activity remains low and the approach to understand an acquisition target’s operating model remains non-exhaustive and unstandardized. This paper investigates...... the pivotal eterminants for assessing operational performance and identifying improvement potentials in an acquisition target. The research question is: “What are the fundamental operational determinants influencing the acquisition decision for private equity firms in the due diligence phase?” This paper...

The crisis of the information system in Italy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noe, L.

1995-01-01

Following a five-year moratorium to avoid developing nuclear activities, Italy still depends for 84% on fossil fuel imports and on electric power from overseas. Such a decision making process is due to the fact that classical cultural back grounded journalists and policy makers have not generally understood technical problems. Analysis of the national daily press has also shown incorrect or unreliable information. Some working suggestions to help improve the information system in the field of nuclear are then proposed. (TEC)

Facts and Fantasies about Gold

OpenAIRE

Klement, Joachim

2015-01-01

Due to the increasing popularity of gold as an investment the demand for effective risk management techniques for gold investments has increased as well. In this paper we analyze several drivers of the price of gold that have been proposed in the past. Our analysis indicates that short-term volatility of the price of gold remains rather unpredictable with many of the explanations like the fund flows in physical gold ETF either unreliable or unstable over time. Our analysis suggests that there...

Risks due to fires at Big Rock Point

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brinsfield, W.A.; Blanchard, D.P.

1983-01-01

The unique and older designs of the Big Rock Point nuclear plant is such that fires contribute significantly to the probability of core damage predicted in the probabilistic risk assessment performed for this plant. The methodology employed to determine this contribution reflects the unique, as constructed, plant design, while systematically and logically addressing the true effect of fires on the operation of the plant and the safety of the public. As a result of the methodology utilized in the PRA, recommendations are made which minimize the risk of core damage due to fires. Included in these recommendations is a proposal for equipment and controls to be included on the Big Rock Point alternate shutdown panel

MONJU fuel pin performance analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitagawa, H.; Yamanaka, T.; Hayashi, H.

1979-01-01

Monju fuel pin has almost the same properties as other LMFBR fuel pins, i.e. Phenix, PFR, CRBR, but would be irradiated under severe conditions: maximum linear heat rate of 381 watt/cm, hot spot cladding temperature of 675 deg C, peak burnup of 131,000 MWd/t, peak fluence (E greater than 0.1 MeV) of 2.3 10 23 n/cm 2 . In order to understand in-core performance of Monju fuel pin, its thermal and mechanical behaviour was predicted using the fast running performance code SIMPLE. The code takes into account pellet-cladding interaction due to thermal expansion and swelling, gap conductance, structural changes of fuel pellets, fission product gas release with burnup and temperature increase, swelling and creep of fuel pellets, corrosion of cladding due to sodium flow and chemical attack by fission products, and cumulative damage of the cladding due to thermal creep

Eye movements discriminate fatigue due to chronotypical factors and time spent on task--a double dissociation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dario Cazzoli

Full Text Available Systematic differences in circadian rhythmicity are thought to be a substantial factor determining inter-individual differences in fatigue and cognitive performance. The synchronicity effect (when time of testing coincides with the respective circadian peak period seems to play an important role. Eye movements have been shown to be a reliable indicator of fatigue due to sleep deprivation or time spent on cognitive tasks. However, eye movements have not been used so far to investigate the circadian synchronicity effect and the resulting differences in fatigue. The aim of the present study was to assess how different oculomotor parameters in a free visual exploration task are influenced by: a fatigue due to chronotypical factors (being a 'morning type' or an 'evening type'; b fatigue due to the time spent on task. Eighteen healthy participants performed a free visual exploration task of naturalistic pictures while their eye movements were recorded. The task was performed twice, once at their optimal and once at their non-optimal time of the day. Moreover, participants rated their subjective fatigue. The non-optimal time of the day triggered a significant and stable increase in the mean visual fixation duration during the free visual exploration task for both chronotypes. The increase in the mean visual fixation duration correlated with the difference in subjectively perceived fatigue at optimal and non-optimal times of the day. Conversely, the mean saccadic speed significantly and progressively decreased throughout the duration of the task, but was not influenced by the optimal or non-optimal time of the day for both chronotypes. The results suggest that different oculomotor parameters are discriminative for fatigue due to different sources. A decrease in saccadic speed seems to reflect fatigue due to time spent on task, whereas an increase in mean fixation duration a lack of synchronicity between chronotype and time of the day.

[Postoperative Bile Leakage Following Liver Resection Due to Stenosis of a Choledochojejunostomy Anastomosis after Pancreaticoduodenectomy - A Case Report].

Science.gov (United States)

Nakayama, Yoshihito; Watanabe, Nobukazu; Akasaka, Harue

2017-11-01

We report a rare case of intractable bile leakage after liver resection due to stenosis of the anastomosis of a choledochojejunostomy after pancreaticoduodenectomy. A 65-year-old woman was diagnosed with pancreatic and right breast cancer, and underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy and right mastectomy with simultaneous axillary lymph node dissection. Adjuvant chemotherapy and follow-up were performed in our department. After 18 months, computed tomography revealed a liver metastasis of 2.5 cm in segment 8. Because the primary nest of liver metastasis was unknown and performing a biopsy was difficult due to the location, partial resection of the liver was performed. Pathological examination confirmed liver metastasis from the breast cancer. She was rehospitalized due to a right subdiaphragmatic abscess 33 days post-surgery. Abscess drainage revealed bile leakage, and the cause was believed to be stenosis of the anastomosis created by the choledochojejunostomy. Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiographic drainage was performed, and the bile leakage disappeared immediately. However, it was difficult to release the anastomotic stenosis by choledochoscopy; therefore, a retrograde drainage tube was placed in the hepatic duct using enteroscopy, and it formed an internal fistula. The patient has continued to undergo chemotherapy for recurrence in the remnant liver that was observed 16 months after the hepatectomy. In conclusion, when hepatic resection is performed after pancreaticoduodenectomy, attention should be paid to the possible occurrence of bile leakage.

Army’s Audit Readiness at Risk Because of Unreliable Data in the Appropriation Status Report

Science.gov (United States)

2014-06-26

for data reviewed from the December 2012 report. Material differences existed between reported data from the General Fund Enterprise Business System...GFEBS. An independent public accounting firm, KPMG LLP, performed examinations of SBR business processes at Army activities using GFEBS.   KPMG LLP...to its processes. A second report from KPMG LLP, issued April 9, 2013, reported that the Army did not meet the FIAR guidance requirements for

Nutritional and metabolic changes due the abdominal radiation: experimental study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mucerino, Donato R.; Waitzberg, Dan L.; Campos, Fabio G. de; Melo Auricchio, Maria T. de; Gama-Rodrigues, Joaquim J.; Lima-Goncalves, Ernesto L.

1995-01-01

In this study the effects on nutritional status and energetic metabolism due the abdominal irradiation were analysed. Adult male wistar rats (48), were divided in two groups Control (C) and radiated (R). The rats were maintained all time in metabolic cages. the study was done in two periods: period 1 begun at 0 day, were rats adapted to cages and oral diet, had food and water ad libitum. At the day four indirect calorimetric measurements were performed (calorimetry 1). At period 2, group R rats abdominal radiation at a 300 c Gy/day rate, for 5 consecutive days, and group C started a pair-feeding process linked individually to R rats and suffered application to simulated-irradiation. Two other calorimetric measurements (II,III) were performing during period 2. After radiation the last calorimetry was performed (IV). At sacrifice (day 14) blood was collected for determination of hemoglobin, hematocrit, albumin and transferrin. There were no statistical differences among groups C and R during period 1 (p < 0.05). Great reduction in food intake and weight variation were found in period 2, but weight loss was significantly higher in R rats. Nitrogen balance decrease in period 2, but without difference among the groups (p < 0.05). Serum albumin was significantly lower in R rats. Respiratory quotient decreased in both groups during period 2, but rats kept it lower (p < 0.05). The energy expenditure level decreased after radiation in group R. During period 2 total substrate oxidation decreased in R rats. Radiation decrease glucose and protein oxidation. In conclusion, in this study's conditions, radiation produced malnutrition by reducing food intake by bringing weight loss, hypoalbuminemia and decrease nitrogen balance. Radiation was also responsible for a reduction of metabolism, by promoting the fall of energy expenditure. These changes are not only due the anorexia, undoubtful a main factor. (author)

Risk of Adverse Health Outcomes and Decrements in Performance Due to In-flight Medical Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Antonsen,Erik

2017-01-01

The drive to undertake long-duration space exploration missions at greater distances from Earth gives rise to many challenges concerning human performance under extreme conditions. At NASA, the Human Research Program (HRP) has been established to investigate the specific risks to astronaut health and performance presented by space exploration, in addition to developing necessary countermeasures and technology to reduce risk and facilitate safer, more productive missions in space (NASA Human Research Program 2009). The HRP is divided into five subsections, covering behavioral health, space radiation, habitability, and other areas of interest. Within this structure is the ExMC Element, whose research contributes to the overall development of new technologies to overcome the challenges of expanding human exploration and habitation of space. The risk statement provided by the HRP to the ExMC Element states: "Given that medical conditions/events will occur during human spaceflight missions, there is a possibility of adverse health outcomes and decrements in performance in mission and for long term health" (NASA Human Research Program 2016). Within this risk context, the Exploration Medical Capabilities (ExMC) Element is specifically concerned with establishing evidenced-based methods of monitoring and maintaining astronaut health. Essential to completing this task is the advancement in techniques that identify, prevent, and treat any health threats that may occur during space missions. The ultimate goal of the ExMC Element is to develop and demonstrate a pathway for medical system integration into vehicle and mission design to mitigate the risk of medical issues. Integral to this effort is inclusion of an evidence-based medical and data handling system appropriate for long-duration, exploration-class missions. This requires a clear Concept of Operations, quantitative risk metrics or other tools to address changing risk throughout a mission, and system scoping and system

Risk of Performance and Behavioral Health Decrements Due to Inadequate Cooperation, Coordination, Communication, and Psychosocial Adaptation within a Team

Science.gov (United States)

Landon, Lauren Blackwell; Vessey, William B.; Barrett, Jamie D.

2015-01-01

A team is defined as: "two or more individuals who interact socially and adaptively, have shared or common goals, and hold meaningful task interdependences; it is hierarchically structured and has a limited life span; in it expertise and roles are distributed; and it is embedded within an organization/environmental context that influences and is influenced by ongoing processes and performance outcomes" (Salas, Stagl, Burke, & Goodwin, 2007, p. 189). From the NASA perspective, a team is commonly understood to be a collection of individuals that is assigned to support and achieve a particular mission. Thus, depending on context, this definition can encompass both the spaceflight crew and the individuals and teams in the larger multi-team system who are assigned to support that crew during a mission. The Team Risk outcomes of interest are predominantly performance related, with a secondary emphasis on long-term health; this is somewhat unique in the NASA HRP in that most Risk areas are medically related and primarily focused on long-term health consequences. In many operational environments (e.g., aviation), performance is assessed as the avoidance of errors. However, the research on performance errors is ambiguous. It implies that actions may be dichotomized into "correct" or "incorrect" responses, where incorrect responses or errors are always undesirable. Researchers have argued that this dichotomy is a harmful oversimplification, and it would be more productive to focus on the variability of human performance and how organizations can manage that variability (Hollnagel, Woods, & Leveson, 2006) (Category III1). Two problems occur when focusing on performance errors: 1) the errors are infrequent and, therefore, difficult to observe and record; and 2) the errors do not directly correspond to failure. Research reveals that humans are fairly adept at correcting or compensating for performance errors before such errors result in recognizable or recordable failures

Road accident due to a pancreatic insulinoma: a case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Parisi, Amilcare; Desiderio, Jacopo; Cirocchi, Roberto; Grassi, Veronica; Trastulli, Stefano; Barberini, Francesco; Corsi, Alessia; Cacurri, Alban; Renzi, Claudio; Anastasio, Fabio; Battista, Francesca; Pucci, Giacomo; Noya, Giuseppe; Schillaci, Giuseppe

2015-03-01

Insulinoma is a rare pancreatic endocrine tumor, typically sporadic and solitary. Although the Whipple triad, consisting of hypoglycemia, neuroglycopenic symptoms, and symptoms relief with glucose administration, is often present, the diagnosis may be challenging when symptoms are less typical. We report a case of road accident due to an episode of loss of consciousness in a patient with pancreatic insulinoma. In the previous months, the patient had occasionally reported nonspecific symptoms. During hospitalization, endocrine examinations were compatible with an insulin-producing tumor. Abdominal computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging allowed us to identify and localize the tumor. The patient underwent a robotic distal pancreatectomy with partial omentectomy and splenectomy. Insulin-producing tumors may go undetected for a long period due to nonspecific clinical symptoms, and may cause episodes of loss of consciousness with potentially lethal consequences. Robot-assisted procedures can be performed with the same techniques of the traditional surgery, reducing surgical trauma, intraoperative blood loss, and hospital stays.

CANDU fuel performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ivanoff, N.V.; Bazeley, E.G.; Hastings, I.J.

1982-01-01

CANDU fuel has operated successfully in Ontario Hydro's power reactors since 1962. In the 19 years of experience, about 99.9% of all fuel bundles have performed as designed. Most defects occurred before 1979 and subsequent changes in fuel design, fuel management, reactor control, and manufacturing quality control have reduced the current defect rate to near zero. Loss of power production due to defective fuel has been negligible. The outstanding performance continues while maintaining a low unit energy cost for fuel

Learnability and linguistic performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Drozd, Kenneth

2004-01-01

of the human biological endowment for language in the form of a UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR (UG) (Chomsky, 1965). With respect to experimental design, C&T have strongly maintained that even young children know UG constraints but perform poorly in some experiments-due to the extralinguistic demands associated...... with experimental tasks, particularly those involved in presupposition accommodation and complex response planning. C&T specifically design their experiments to reduce the impact of extralinguistic demands on children's linguistic performance while at the same time providing felicitous environments for adultlike...... performance....

On NonAsymptotic Optimal Stopping Criteria in Monte Carlo Simulations

KAUST Repository

Bayer, Christian; Hoel, Hakon; von Schwerin, Erik; Tempone, Raul

2014-01-01

We consider the setting of estimating the mean of a random variable by a sequential stopping rule Monte Carlo (MC) method. The performance of a typical second moment based sequential stopping rule MC method is shown to be unreliable in such settings both by numerical examples and through analysis. By analysis and approximations, we construct a higher moment based stopping rule which is shown in numerical examples to perform more reliably and only slightly less efficiently than the second moment based stopping rule.

SAR in human head model due to resonant wireless power transfer system.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Chao; Liu, Guoqiang; Li, Yanhong; Song, Xianjin

2016-04-29

Efficient mid-range wireless power transfer between transmitter and the receiver has been achieved based on the magnetic resonant coupling method. The influence of electromagnetic field on the human body due to resonant wireless power transfer system (RWPT) should be taken into account during the design process of the system. To analyze the transfer performance of the RWPT system and the change rules of the specific absorption rate (SAR) in the human head model due to the RWPT system. The circuit-field coupling method for a RWPT system with consideration of the displacement current was presented. The relationship between the spiral coil parameters and transfer performance was studied. The SAR in the human head model was calculated under two different exposure conditions. A system with output power higher than 10 W at 0.2 m distance operating at a frequency of approximately 1 MHz was designed. The FEM simulation results show the peak SAR value is below the safety limit which appeared when the human head model is in front of the transmitter. The simulation results agreed well with the experimental results, which verified the validity of the analysis and design.

Effects of Atenolol on Growth Performance, Mortality Due to Ascites, Antioxidant Status and Some Blood Parameters in Broilers under Induced Ascites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

mokhtar fathi

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction Broiler chickens are intensively selected for productive traits. The management of these highly productive animals must be optimal to allow their full genetic potential to be expressed. If this is not done, inefficient production and several metabolic diseases such as ascites become apparent. Investigations in mammals indicated that the b- adrenoreceptor characteristics are differentially regulated by chronic hypoxia and play an important role in the cardiovascular system. The density of b-adrenergic receptors was higher in cardiac cells of ascites sensitive birds compared with ascites-resistant ones. Moreover, the characteristics of b-adreno receptors are different in cardiac cells of birds with right ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure compared with healthy birds. Treatment with the selective b1-adrenoceptor blocker, atenolol, abolished right ventricular hypertrophy in response to hypoxia compared with normoxic condition in rats. Materials and Methods This study investigated the comparative effects of different levels of atenolol Growth performance, Mortality due to ascites, antioxidant status and blood parameters in broilers under induced ascites. Six hundred one-day-old male broilers (Ross 308 in a completely randomized experimental design with four treatments (Positive control, negative control, and two levels of 30 and 60 ppm atenolol with five replicates of thirty birds were applied. Birds in positive control were reared in natural temperature without atenolol, the other bird groups were reared in cold temperature with 0, 30 and 60 ppm atenolol. The average daily feed intake (ADFI, average daily weight gain (ADWG and feed conversion ratio (FCR for each group of birds were calculated and mortality was daily weighed, recorded and used to correct the FCR. Observations were made daily to record the incidence of ascites and mortality. Diagnosis of ascites generally depends on observation of the following symptoms: (1 right

Can We Predict Cognitive Performance Decrements Due to Sleep Loss and the Recuperative Effects of Caffeine

Science.gov (United States)

2015-10-14

the integrated UMP would provide another step toward the development of a wearable computer-based system or smartphone app that considers an......mail.mil ABSTRACT Warfighters are often subjected to challenging sleep/wake schedules that hinder their cognitive performance. Countermeasures

Intelligent approaches for the synthesis of petrophysical logs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rezaee, M Reza; Kadkhodaie-Ilkhchi, Ali; Alizadeh, Pooya Mohammad

2008-01-01

Log data are of prime importance in acquiring petrophysical data from hydrocarbon reservoirs. Reliable log analysis in a hydrocarbon reservoir requires a complete set of logs. For many reasons, such as incomplete logging in old wells, destruction of logs due to inappropriate data storage and measurement errors due to problems with logging apparatus or hole conditions, log suites are either incomplete or unreliable. In this study, fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks were used as intelligent tools to synthesize petrophysical logs including neutron, density, sonic and deep resistivity. The petrophysical data from two wells were used for constructing intelligent models in the Fahlian limestone reservoir, Southern Iran. A third well from the field was used to evaluate the reliability of the models. The results showed that fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks were successful in synthesizing wireline logs. The combination of the results obtained from fuzzy logic and neural networks in a simple averaging committee machine (CM) showed a significant improvement in the accuracy of the estimations. This committee machine performed better than fuzzy logic or the neural network model in the problem of estimating petrophysical properties from well logs

A practical due diligence strategy for managing the safety of contractors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Catton, C.

1998-01-01

Ontario Hydro's Fossil Business has developed and implemented a practical program to ensure that the due diligence requirements for contractors are met, particularly in the health and safety area. Companies in the power generation business are hiring contractors to protect their competitive potential by having them perform specialty work outside the core business of generating electricity. The reasons behind this trend, and the need for companies to develop comprehensive contractor safety management systems to avoid legislative liability and cost overruns, and to have contractors work safely, are examined. The main elements of Ontario Hydro's Fossil Business Contractor Safety Management Program (contractor safety policy, contractor safety manual, contractor safety training, and a contractor safety performance database) are discussed. 2 figs., 2 appendices

Fatigue of LMFBR piping due to flow stratification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woodward, W.S.

1983-01-01

Flow stratification due to reverse flow was simulated in a 1/5-scale water model of a LMFBR primary pipe loop. The stratified flow was observed to have a dynamic interface region which oscillated in a wave pattern. The behavior of the interface was characterized in terms of location, local temperature fluctuation and duration for various reverse flow conditions. A structural assessment was performed to determine the effects of stratified flow on the fatigue life of the pipe. Both the static and dynamic aspects of flow stratification were examined. The dynamic interface produces thermal striping on the inside of the pipe wall which is shown to have the most deleterious effect on the pipe wall and produce significant fatigue damage relative to a static interface

Fatigue of LMFBR piping due to flow stratification

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Woodward, W.S.

1983-01-01

Flow stratification due to reverse flow was simulated in a 1/5-scale water model of a LMFBR primary pipe loop. The stratified flow was observed to have a dynamic interface region which oscillated in a wave pattern. The behavior of the interface was characterized in terms of location, local temperature fluctuation and duration for various reverse flow conditions. A structural assessment was performed to determine the effects of stratified flow on the fatigue life of the pipe. Both the static and dynamic aspects of flow stratification were examined. The dynamic interface produces thermal striping on the inside of the pipe wall which is shown to have the most deleterious effect on the pipe wall and produce significant fatigue damage relative to a static interface.

Evaluation of IMERG and TRMM 3B43 Monthly Precipitation Products over Mainland China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fengrui Chen

2016-06-01

Full Text Available As the successor of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM mission significantly improves the spatial resolution of precipitation estimates from 0.25° to 0.1°. The present study analyzed the error structures of Integrated Multisatellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG monthly precipitation products over Mainland China from March 2014 to February 2015 using gauge measurements at multiple spatiotemporal scales. Moreover, IMERG products were also compared with TRMM 3B43 products. The results show that: (1 overall, IMERG can capture the spatial patterns of precipitation over China well. It performs a little better than TRMM 3B43 at seasonal and monthly scales; (2 the performance of IMERG varies greatly spatially and temporally. IMERG performs better at low latitudes than at middle latitudes, and shows worse performance in winter than at other times; (3 compared with TRMM 3B43, IMERG significantly improves the estimation accuracy of precipitation over the Xinjiang region and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, especially over the former where IMERG increases Pearson correlation coefficient by 0.18 and decreases root-mean-square error by 54.47 mm for annual precipitation estimates. However, most IMERG products over these areas are unreliable; and (4 IMERG shows poor performance in winter as TRMM 3B43 even if GPM improved its ability to sense frozen precipitation. Most of them over North China are unreliable during this period.

Pre- and post-operative evaluations of eight dogs following right nephrectomy due to Dioctophyma renale.

Science.gov (United States)

Mesquita, L R; Rahal, S C; Faria, L G; Takahira, R K; Rocha, N S; Mamprim, M J; Oliveira, H S

2014-01-01

Dioctophyma renale is a large nematode distributed worldwide that may cause progressive and severe destruction of renal parenchyma. The present study aimed to evaluate pre- and post-operatively dogs submitted to right nephrectomy due to D. renale and to assess the histopathological damage of the removed kidney. Eight crossbred dogs, aged from 12 to 48 months that were unilaterally nephrectomized due to the presence of D. renale were evaluated. Physical examination, urinalysis, complete blood count, serum biochemistry, and abdominal ultrasound were performed immediately before and one month after nephrectomy. The nephrectomized right kidneys were submitted to macroscopic and microscopic evaluations. Urinalysis preoperatively detected occult blood in all dogs and D. renale eggs in five cases. Complete blood count showed all parameters within the reference range, except one dog post-operatively. Serum biochemistry performed before and after surgery verified that urea, creatinine and sodium were within the reference range values in all dogs. Other findings varied among the dogs. The length and arterial resistive index mean values of the left kidney were similar pre- and post-operatively. Thus, the inconsiderable change in laboratory findings pre- and post-operatively was attributable to compensation by left kidney function for the removed abnormal right kidney. Right kidney histology revealed chronic nephropathy due to D. renale. Imaging diagnosis should be performed on dogs suspected as carrying the disease or on those from an enzootic area since the laboratory findings are not specific except eggs in the urine.

High physical and psychological load at work and sickness absence due to neck pain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ariëns, G.A.M.; Bongers, P.M.; Hoogendoorn, W.E.; Wal, G. van der; Mechelen, W. van

2002-01-01

Objectives This study investigates the relationship between physical and psychosocial load at work and sickness absence due to neck pain. Methods A prospective cohort study with a follow-up period of 3 years (1994-1998) was performed among a working population. At the beginning of the study,

Professional performance in school

OpenAIRE

Rubio, J. F.

2012-01-01

Professional performance in education is now calling the attention of researcher due to its role in the professionalizing process intended to increase international education standards. In this article the term professional performance is examined from the two socio-historic traditional roles involved in training the individuals as a bio-psychic and social entity: teachers and executive. By means of scientific methods, the author gives the theoretical grounds connecting professional performan...

RECORD OF THE BINARY DATA ON SD CARD ARDUINO DUE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. G. Mikhailov

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The short review of microcontrollers of family Arduino, their characteristics and application fields is given. Importance of record of parameters of researched object is marked to produce debugging of control systems on microcontrollers Arduino. Unique possibility of registration of parameters in family Arduino is record on SD a card in an alpha mode with usage of functions print (, write (. The problems connected to record of the binary data on SD a card on microcontroller Arduino Due are considered. The analysis of methods of record of the binary data on SD card Arduino Due, originating problems with neo-cleaning of memory from the previous program leading to possibility of duplication of the data on SD to a card, presence of the erratic point of view about restriction of volumes of data record and necessity of usage become outdated SD cards is carried out. Ways of elimination of the marked lacks are considered. The estimation of high-speed performance of various approaches of a data recording on SD a card is led. On the basis of the led researches the approach of multiplexing of the writeable information at the expense of conversion of the binary data is offered is byte-serial in a character array in code ASCI without magnification of their volume and record by units on 240 byte. It allows to use as much as possible standard function possibilities write ( Arduino and specificity of the organization of memory SD of cards and to increase high-speed performance more than in 1100 times in comparison with record in a character type on one byte.It is marked that usage of decisions of an exception of duplication of the data offered at forums does not provide completeness of their elimination. For Arduino Due for storage cleaning it is necessary usages of the special programmator or setting of the new program of loading.

Computer-aided global breast MR image feature analysis for prediction of tumor response to chemotherapy: performance assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Aghaei, Faranak; Tan, Maxine; Hollingsworth, Alan B.; Zheng, Bin; Cheng, Samuel

2016-03-01

Dynamic contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) has been used increasingly in breast cancer diagnosis and assessment of cancer treatment efficacy. In this study, we applied a computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme to automatically segment breast regions depicting on MR images and used the kinetic image features computed from the global breast MR images acquired before neoadjuvant chemotherapy to build a new quantitative model to predict response of the breast cancer patients to the chemotherapy. To assess performance and robustness of this new prediction model, an image dataset involving breast MR images acquired from 151 cancer patients before undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy was retrospectively assembled and used. Among them, 63 patients had "complete response" (CR) to chemotherapy in which the enhanced contrast levels inside the tumor volume (pre-treatment) was reduced to the level as the normal enhanced background parenchymal tissues (post-treatment), while 88 patients had "partially response" (PR) in which the high contrast enhancement remain in the tumor regions after treatment. We performed the studies to analyze the correlation among the 22 global kinetic image features and then select a set of 4 optimal features. Applying an artificial neural network trained with the fusion of these 4 kinetic image features, the prediction model yielded an area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.83+/-0.04. This study demonstrated that by avoiding tumor segmentation, which is often difficult and unreliable, fusion of kinetic image features computed from global breast MR images without tumor segmentation can also generate a useful clinical marker in predicting efficacy of chemotherapy.

Teaching performance in performative arts. Video conference in higher music education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buhl, Mie; Ørngreen, Rikke; Levinsen, Karin

in a virtual room put apart in physical room (what we identify as the third room). The music teacher must find new ways of facilitating the performative aspects of practising music. A teaching practice of narration, metaphors and dramatization appears to be an effective mode of helping the student to play......Teaching performance in performative arts – video conference on the highest level of music education Mie Buhl, Rikke Ørngreen, Karin Levinsen Aalborg University, KILD – Communication, it and learning design & ILD – It and Learning Design Video Conferencing (VC) is becoming an increasing teaching......-learning relations take place are performed in new ways. When the performing art of music is taught on a distance, the phenomenon of performativity also materializes in new ways: in the dialogue between teachers and learners; due to the technical possibilities; as well as in the separation of being together...

Robust Portfolio Optimization Using Pseudodistances

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

The presence of outliers in financial asset returns is a frequently occurring phenomenon which may lead to unreliable mean-variance optimized portfolios. This fact is due to the unbounded influence that outliers can have on the mean returns and covariance estimators that are inputs in the optimization procedure. In this paper we present robust estimators of mean and covariance matrix obtained by minimizing an empirical version of a pseudodistance between the assumed model and the true model underlying the data. We prove and discuss theoretical properties of these estimators, such as affine equivariance, B-robustness, asymptotic normality and asymptotic relative efficiency. These estimators can be easily used in place of the classical estimators, thereby providing robust optimized portfolios. A Monte Carlo simulation study and applications to real data show the advantages of the proposed approach. We study both in-sample and out-of-sample performance of the proposed robust portfolios comparing them with some other portfolios known in literature. PMID:26468948

Reliable on-line storage in the ALICE High-Level Trigger

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kalcher, Sebastian; Lindenstruth, Volker [Kirchhoff Institute of Physics, University of Heidelberg (Germany)

2009-07-01

The on-line disk capacity within large computing clusters such as used in the ALICE High-Level Trigger (HLT) is often not used due to the inherent unreliability of the involved disks. With currently available hard drive capacities the total on-line capacity can be significant when compared to the storage requirements of present high energy physics experiments. In this talk we report on ClusterRAID, a reliable, distributed mass storage system, which allows to harness the (often unused) disk capacities of large cluster installations. The key paradigm of this system is to transform the local hard drive into a reliable device. It provides adjustable fault-tolerance by utilizing sophisticated error-correcting codes. To reduce the costs of coding and decoding operations the use of modern graphics processing units as co-processor has been investigated. Also, the utilization of low overhead, high performance communication networks has been examined. A prototype set up of the system exists within the HLT with 90 TB gross capacity.

Development of a keV single-ion-implanter for nanofabrication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, C.; Jamieson, D.N.; Hopf, T.; Tamanyan, G.; Spizziri, P.; Pakes, C.; Andresen, S.E.; Hudson, F.; Gauja, E.; Dzurak, A.; Clark, R.G.

2005-01-01

Traditional methods of doping semiconductors have a difficulty meeting the demand for high precision doping due to large statistical fluctuations in the numbers of dopant atoms introduced in the ever shrinking volume in micro- and nano-electronics devices, especially when the fabrication process approaches the nanometre scale. The statistical fluctuations in doping semiconductors for the fabrication of devices with a very small feature size may lead to inconsistent and unreliable performance. This paper describes the adaptation of a commercial ion implanter into a single-ion-implantation system for the accurate delivery of dopants into a nanometre or micrometre area in a silicon substrate. All the implanted ions can be accurately counted with near 100% certainty through online detection using the silicon substrate itself as an ion detector. A variety of ion species including B + , N + , P + at the energy range of 10-15 keV can be delivered in the single ion implantation system. (author). 6 refs., 6 figs

Tests of a grazing-incidence ring resonator free-electron laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dowell, D.H.; Laucks, M.L.; Lowrey, A.R.; Adamski, J.L.; Pistoresi, D.J.; Shoffstall, D.R.; Bentz, M.P.; Burns, R.H.; Guha, J.; Sun, K.; Tomita, W.

1991-01-01

This paper reports on the Boeing free-electron laser (FEL) optical cavity that has been changed from a simple concentric cavity using two spherical mirrors to a larger grazing-incidence ring resonator. The new resonator consists of two mirror telescopes located at each end of the wiggler with a round-trip path length of approximately 133 m. Each telescope is a grazing-incidence hyperboloid followed by a normal-incidence paraboloid. Initial tests showed that poorly positioned ring focus and unreliable pointing alignment resulted in reduced and structured FEL output. (First lasing operation occurred on March 23 and 24, 1990.) Later efforts concentrated on improving the resonator alignment techniques and lowering the single-pass losses. FEL performance and reliability have significantly improved due to better ring alignment. The alignment procedure and recent lasing results are described. The effect the electron beam has on lasing is also discussed. Measurements are presented showing how FEL temporal output and wavelength are sensitive to electron beam energy variations

MAPPING GNSS RESTRICTED ENVIRONMENTS WITH A DRONE TANDEM AND INDIRECT POSITION CONTROL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Cledat

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The problem of autonomously mapping highly cluttered environments, such as urban and natural canyons, is intractable with the current UAV technology. The reason lies in the absence or unreliability of GNSS signals due to partial sky occlusion or multi-path effects. High quality carrier-phase observations are also required in efficient mapping paradigms, such as Assisted Aerial Triangulation, to achieve high ground accuracy without the need of dense networks of ground control points. In this work we consider a drone tandem in which the first drone flies outside the canyon, where GNSS constellation is ideal, visually tracks the second drone and provides an indirect position control for it. This enables both autonomous guidance and accurate mapping of GNSS restricted environments without the need of ground control points. We address the technical feasibility of this concept considering preliminary real-world experiments in comparable conditions and we perform a mapping accuracy prediction based on a simulation scenario.

Predicting hydration free energies of amphetamine-type stimulants with a customized molecular model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Jipeng; Lu, Diannan; Fu, Jia; Wu, Jianzhong; Huang, Xing

2016-01-01

Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are a group of incitation and psychedelic drugs affecting the central nervous system. Physicochemical data for these compounds are essential for understanding the stimulating mechanism, for assessing their environmental impacts, and for developing new drug detection methods. However, experimental data are scarce due to tight regulation of such illicit drugs, yet conventional methods to estimate their properties are often unreliable. Here we introduce a tailor-made multiscale procedure for predicting the hydration free energies and the solvation structures of ATS molecules by a combination of first principles calculations and the classical density functional theory. We demonstrate that the multiscale procedure performs well for a training set with similar molecular characteristics and yields good agreement with a testing set not used in the training. The theoretical predictions serve as a benchmark for the missing experimental data and, importantly, provide microscopic insights into manipulating the hydrophobicity of ATS compounds by chemical modifications. (paper)

Robust Portfolio Optimization Using Pseudodistances.

Science.gov (United States)

Toma, Aida; Leoni-Aubin, Samuela

2015-01-01

The presence of outliers in financial asset returns is a frequently occurring phenomenon which may lead to unreliable mean-variance optimized portfolios. This fact is due to the unbounded influence that outliers can have on the mean returns and covariance estimators that are inputs in the optimization procedure. In this paper we present robust estimators of mean and covariance matrix obtained by minimizing an empirical version of a pseudodistance between the assumed model and the true model underlying the data. We prove and discuss theoretical properties of these estimators, such as affine equivariance, B-robustness, asymptotic normality and asymptotic relative efficiency. These estimators can be easily used in place of the classical estimators, thereby providing robust optimized portfolios. A Monte Carlo simulation study and applications to real data show the advantages of the proposed approach. We study both in-sample and out-of-sample performance of the proposed robust portfolios comparing them with some other portfolios known in literature.

Reliability analysis of the recirculation phase of the safety injection system of Angra-1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rivera, R.R.J.M.

1981-09-01

The calculation of several reliability parameters-failure probability, unavailability and unreliability - of the recirculation phase of the safety injection system of Angra-1, was done. This system has two distinct modes of operation (short term and long term) which were fault tree analysed both separately and as a whole. To obtain quantitative results the computer codes SAMPLE and PRET-KITT were utilized. The former was used to consider the uncertainties in the failure data (drawn integrally from WASH-1400) and the latter to obtain time dependent unreliability values. Hardware failures and common-mode failures were considered. Altough the analysis methods employed here differ somewhat from those used in WASH-1400, the results which could be compared were found to have the order of magnitude. A viability study of some suggestions of system's modifications was performed, and it has shown that some significant reliability improvements can be achieved with reasonably simple changes. (Author) [pt

A pragmatic decision model for inventory management with heterogeneous suppliers

Science.gov (United States)

Nakandala, Dilupa; Lau, Henry; Zhang, Jingjing; Gunasekaran, Angappa

2018-05-01

For enterprises, it is imperative that the trade-off between the cost of inventory and risk implications is managed in the most efficient manner. To explore this, we use the common example of a wholesaler operating in an environment where suppliers demonstrate heterogeneous reliability. The wholesaler has partial orders with dual suppliers and uses lateral transshipments. While supplier reliability is a key concern in inventory management, reliable suppliers are more expensive and investment in strategic approaches that improve supplier performance carries a high cost. Here we consider the operational strategy of dual sourcing with reliable and unreliable suppliers and model the total inventory cost where the likely scenario lead-time of the unreliable suppliers extends beyond the scheduling period. We then develop a Customized Integer Programming Optimization Model to determine the optimum size of partial orders with multiple suppliers. In addition to the objective of total cost optimization, this study takes into account the volatility of the cost associated with the uncertainty of an inventory system.

[Dehydration due to "mouth broken"].

Science.gov (United States)

Meijler, D P M; van Mossevelde, P W J; van Beek, R H T

2012-09-01

Two children were admitted to a medical centre due to dehydration after an oral injury and the extraction of a tooth. One child complained of "mouth broken". Dehydration is the most common water-electrolyte imbalance in children. Babies and young children are prone to dehydration due to their relatively large body surface area, the high percentage extracellular fluid, and the limited ability of the kidneys to conserve water. After the removal ofa tooth, after an oral trauma or in case of oral discomfort, a child is at greater risk of dehydration by reduced fluid and food intake due to oral pain and/or discomfort and anxiety to drink. In those cases, extra attention needs to be devoted to the intake of fluids.

Study on the import dues system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Woo, Sung Keun [LG-Caltex Oil Co., Seoul (Korea)

2000-04-01

Since October 1979, Korea had implemented a petroleum project fund dues system to actively prepare for unstable international petroleum condition. However, as the size of operating a petroleum project fund was bigger and the influence of government on this fund became powerful, it was inserted in the government tax revenues as a {sup S}pecial account for energy and resource project{sup i}n March 1994 and its name was changed to import dues. In this study, it discusses the facts of import dues system, which exists only in Korea, and its policy directions since this system has been reviewed due to the economic development, liberalization of petroleum industry and inequity between alternative energy sources. 4 tabs.

Total hip arthroplasty revision due to infection: a cost analysis approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Klouche, S; Sariali, E; Mamoudy, P

2010-04-01

The treatment of total hip arthroplasty (THA) infections is long and costly. However,the number of studies in the literature analysing the real cost of THA revision in relation to their etiology, including infection, is limited. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the cost of revision of infected THA and to compare these costs to those of primary THA and revision of non-infected THA. We performed a retrospective cost analysis for the year 2006 using an identical analytic accounting system in each hospital department (according to internal criteria) based on allotment of direct costs and receipts for each department. From January to December 2006, 424 primary THA, 57 non-infected THA revisions and 40 THA revisions due to infection were performed. The different cost areas of the patient's treatment were identified.This included preoperative medical work-up, medicosurgical management during hospital stay,a second stay in an orthopedic rehabilitation hospital (ORH) and post-hospitalisation antibiotic therapy after revision due to infection, as well as home-based hospitalisation (HH) costs, if this was the selected alternative option. We used the national health insurance fee schedule found in the "Common classification of medical procedures" and the "General nomenclature of professional procedures" applicable in France since September 1, 2005. Hospital costs included direct costs (hospital overhead costs) and indirect costs, (medical, surgical, technical settings and net general service expenses). The calculation of HH costs and ORH costs were based on the average daily charge of these departments. The cost of primary THA was used as the reference.We then compared our surgical costs with those found for the corresponding comparable hospital stay groups (Groupes homogènes de séjour). The average hospital stay (AHS) was 7.5 +/- 1.8 days for primary THA, 8.9 +/- 2.2 days for non-infected revisions and 30.6 +/- 14.9 days for revisions due to infection

Safety analysis of MOX fuels by fuel performance code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suzuki, Motoe [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

2002-12-01

Performance of plutonium rick mixed oxide fuels specified for the Reduced-Moderation Water Reactor (RMWR) has been analysed by modified fuel performance code. Thermodynamic properties of these fuels up to 120 GWd/t burnup have not been measured and estimated using existing uranium fuel models. Fission product release, pressure rise inside fuel rods and mechanical loads of fuel cans due to internal pressure have been preliminarily assessed based on assumed axial power distribution history, which show the integrity of fuel performance. Detailed evaluation of fuel-cladding interactions due to thermal expansion or swelling of fuel pellets due to high burnup will be required for safety analysis of mixed oxide fuels. Thermal conductivity and swelling of plutonium rich mixed oxide fuels shall be taken into consideration. (T. Tanaka)

2014 Behavioral Health and Performance Standing Review Panel

Science.gov (United States)

Steinberg, Susan; Leon, Gloria; Dimsdale, Joel; Balkin, Thomas; Bono, Joyce; Caldwell, John; Joiner, Thomas; Paulus, Martin; Zaccaro, Stephen

2015-01-01

The 2014 Behavioral Health and Performance (BHP) Standing Review Panel (from here on referred to as the SRP) met for a site visit in Houston, TX on December 17 - 18, 2014. The SRP reviewed the updated research plan for the Risk of Performance Errors Due to Fatigue Resulting from Sleep Loss, Circadian Desynchronization, Extended Wakefulness, and Work Overload (Sleep Risk) and also received a status update on the Risk of Adverse Behavioral Conditions and Psychiatric Disorders (BMed Risk) and the Risk of Performance Decrements Due to Inadequate Cooperation, Coordination, Communication, and Psychosocial Adaptation within a Team (Team Risk).

Biological and social aspects of human sexual orientation: chemocommunicative hypothesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eugene V. Daev

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Failure to understand the role of biological and social factors in the formation of some socially important traits in humans can lead to the appearance of undue tension in interpersonal relationships. This is due to a distorted perception of man often unreliable information, its ambiguity due to the uncertainty of the terminology used and, as a consequence, the impossibility of its correct analysis. Using of term “sexual orientation” shows as a genetic understanding of the trait’s formation and data on sex formation control mechanisms may clarify and complement our knowledge on the subject. Under the theme chemocommunicative model is considered and its contribution to the formation of “sexual orientation” in humans.

A Rare Cause of Acute Abdomen: Urinary Bladder Rupture due to Foley Catheter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ömer Engin

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Urinary bladder rupture is usually found due to blunt or penetrating traumas and iatrogenic injuries, and spontaneous intraperitoneal perforation is very rare. 57 years old male patient was consulted to general surgery department due to abdominal pain, nausia-vomiting and fever. He had Diabetes Mellitus, Multiple Sclerosis, Leriche Syndrome and operation for benign prostatic hypertrophy 5 years ago on his medical history which the case catheterised him urinary bladder himself frequently in nonsterile conditions. He did not care about sterility. On physical examination, suprapubic defence and rebound was noted more prominently on right lower quadrant. He was taken to operating room with the diagnosis of acute abdomen. On exploration, infection was seen on all layers of the whole urinary bladder, abscess formation and necrosis causing a microperforation which is detected by methylene blue was also present. Intraabdominal abscess drainage, cystostomy and primary suturing of the urinary bladder was performed. Patient died due to sepsis at the 9.th post operative day.

Direct costs of unintended pregnancy in the Russian federation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lowin, Julia; Jarrett, James; Dimova, Maria; Ignateva, Victoria; Omelyanovsky, Vitaly; Filonenko, Anna

2015-02-01

In 2010, almost every third pregnancy in Russia was terminated, indicating that unintended pregnancy (UP) is a public health problem. The aim of this study was to estimate the direct cost of UP to the healthcare system in Russia and the proportion attributable to using unreliable contraception. A cost model was built, adopting a generic payer perspective with a 1-year time horizon. The analysis cohort was defined as women of childbearing age between 18 and 44 years actively seeking to avoid pregnancy. Model inputs were derived from published sources or government statistics with a 2012 cost base. To estimate the number of UPs attributable to unreliable methods, the model combined annual typical use failure rates and age-adjusted utilization for each contraceptive method. Published survey data was used to adjust the total cost of UP by the number of UPs that were mistimed rather than unwanted. Scenario analysis considered alternate allocation of methods to the reliable and unreliable categories and estimate of the burden of UP in the target sub-group of women aged 18-29 years. The model estimated 1,646,799 UPs in the analysis cohort (women aged 18-44 years) with an associated annual cost of US$783 million. The model estimated 1,019,371 UPs in the target group of 18-29 years, of which 88 % were attributable to unreliable contraception. The total cost of UPs in the target group was estimated at approximately US$498 million, of which US$441 million could be considered attributable to the use of unreliable methods. The cost of UP attributable to use of unreliable contraception in Russia is substantial. Policies encouraging use of reliable contraceptive methods could reduce the burden of UP.

On the Importance of Reliable Covariate Measurement in Selection Bias Adjustments Using Propensity Scores

Science.gov (United States)

Steiner, Peter M.; Cook, Thomas D.; Shadish, William R.

2011-01-01

The effect of unreliability of measurement on propensity score (PS) adjusted treatment effects has not been previously studied. The authors report on a study simulating different degrees of unreliability in the multiple covariates that were used to estimate the PS. The simulation uses the same data as two prior studies. Shadish, Clark, and Steiner…

Vapor pressure lowering effects due to salinity and suction pressure in the depletion of vapor-dominated geothermal reservoirs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Battistelli, A. [Aquater S.p.A., Pisa (Italy); Calore, C. [Istituto Internazionale per le Ricerche Geotermiche-CNR, Pisa (Italy); Pruess, K. [Lawrence Berkeley Lab., Berkeley, CA (United States)

1995-03-01

The equation-of-state module able to handle saline brines with non-condensible gas, developed for the TOUGH2 simulator, has been improved to include vapor pressure lowering (VPL) due to suction pressure as represented by Kelvin`s equation. In this equation the effects of salt are considered whereas those of non-condensible gas have currently been neglected. Numerical simulations of fluid production from tight matrix blocks have been performed to evaluate the impact of VPL effects due to salinity and suction pressure on the depletion behaviour of vapor-dominated geothermal reservoirs. Previous studies performed neglected VPL due to suction pressure showed that for initial NaCl mass fractions above threshold values, {open_quotes}sealing{close_quotes} of the block occurs and large amounts of liquid fluid may not be recovered. On the other hand, below the threshold value the matrix block dries out due to fluid production. The inclusion of VPL due to suction pressure does not allow complete vaporization of the liquid phase. As a result, the threshold NaCl concentration above which sealing of the matrix block occurs is increased. Above the {open_quotes}critical{close_quotes} NaCl concentration, block depletion behaviour with and without the VPL due to suction pressure is almost identical, as liquid phase saturation remains high even after long production times. As the VPL due to suction pressure depends mainly on capillary pressure, the shape of capillary pressure functions used in numerical simulations is important in determining VPL effects on block depletion.

MR imaging of medullary compression due to vertebral metastases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dooms, G.C.; Mathurin, P.; Maldague, B.; Cornelis, G.; Malghem, J.; Demeure, R.

1987-01-01

A prospective study was performed to assess the value of MR imaging for demonstrating medullary compression due to vertebral metastases in cancer patients clinically suspected of presenting with that complication. Twenty-five consecutive unselected patients were studied, and the MR imaging findings were confirmed by myelography, CT, and/or surgical and autopsy findings for each patient. The MR examinations were performed with a superconducting magnet (Philips Gyroscan S15) operating at 0.5-T. MR imaging demonstrated the metastases (single or multiple) mainly on T1- weighted images (TR = 0.45 sec and TE = 20 msec). Soft-tissue tumoral mass and/or deformity of a vertebral body secondary to metastasis, compressing the spinal cord, was equally demonstrated on T1- and heavily T2-weighted images (TR = 1.65 sec and TE = 100 msec). In the sagittal plane, MR imaging demonstrated the exact level of the compression (one or multiple levels) and its full extent. In conclusion, MR is the first imaging modality for studying cancer patients with clinically suspected medullary compression and obviates the need for more invasive procedures

A 2 × 2 taxonomy of multilevel latent contextual models: accuracy-bias trade-offs in full and partial error correction models.

Science.gov (United States)

Lüdtke, Oliver; Marsh, Herbert W; Robitzsch, Alexander; Trautwein, Ulrich

2011-12-01

In multilevel modeling, group-level variables (L2) for assessing contextual effects are frequently generated by aggregating variables from a lower level (L1). A major problem of contextual analyses in the social sciences is that there is no error-free measurement of constructs. In the present article, 2 types of error occurring in multilevel data when estimating contextual effects are distinguished: unreliability that is due to measurement error and unreliability that is due to sampling error. The fact that studies may or may not correct for these 2 types of error can be translated into a 2 × 2 taxonomy of multilevel latent contextual models comprising 4 approaches: an uncorrected approach, partial correction approaches correcting for either measurement or sampling error (but not both), and a full correction approach that adjusts for both sources of error. It is shown mathematically and with simulated data that the uncorrected and partial correction approaches can result in substantially biased estimates of contextual effects, depending on the number of L1 individuals per group, the number of groups, the intraclass correlation, the number of indicators, and the size of the factor loadings. However, the simulation study also shows that partial correction approaches can outperform full correction approaches when the data provide only limited information in terms of the L2 construct (i.e., small number of groups, low intraclass correlation). A real-data application from educational psychology is used to illustrate the different approaches.

Acceleration performance of individual European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax measured with a sprint performance chamber: comparison with high-speed cinematography and correlates with ecological performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Vandamm, Joshua P; Marras, Stefano; Claireaux, Guy; Handelsman, Corey A; Nelson, Jay A

2012-01-01

Locomotor performance can influence the ecological and evolutionary success of a species. For fish, favorable outcomes of predator-prey encounters are often presumably due to robust acceleration ability. Although escape-response or "fast-start" studies utilizing high-speed cinematography are prevalent, little is known about the contribution of relative acceleration performance to ecological or evolutionary success in a species. This dearth of knowledge may be due to the time-consuming nature of analyzing film, which imposes a practical limit on sample sizes. Herein, we present a high-throughput potential alternative for measuring fish acceleration performance using a sprint performance chamber (SPC). The acceleration performance of a large number of juvenile European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) from two populations was analyzed. Animals from both hatchery and natural ontogenies were assessed, and animals of known acceleration ability had their ecological performance measured in a mesocosm environment. Individuals from one population also had their acceleration performance assessed by both high-speed cinematography and an SPC. Acceleration performance measured in an SPC was lower than that measured by classical high-speed video techniques. However, short-term repeatability and interindividual variation of acceleration performance were similar between the two techniques, and the SPC recorded higher sprint swimming velocities. Wild fish were quicker to accelerate in an SPC and had significantly greater accelerations than all groups of hatchery-raised fish. Acceleration performance had no significant effect on ecological performance (as assessed through animal growth and survival in the mesocosms). However, it is worth noting that wild animals did survive predation in the mesocosm better than farmed ones. Moreover, the hatchery-originated fish that survived the mesocosm experiment, when no predators were present, displayed significantly increased acceleration

Nuclear performance and reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rothwell, G.

1993-01-01

If fewer forced outages are a sign of improved safety, nuclear power plants have become safer and more productive. There has been a significant improvement in nuclear power plant performance, due largely to a decline in the forced outage rate and a dramatic drop in the average number of forced outages per fuel cycle. If fewer forced outages are a sign of improved safety, nuclear power plants have become safer and more productive over time. To encourage further increases in performance, regulatory incentive schemes should reward reactor operators for improved reliability and safety, as well as for improved performance

Overall human mortality and morbidity due to exposure to air pollution.

Science.gov (United States)

Samek, Lucyna

2016-01-01

Concentrations of particulate matter that contains particles with diameter ≤ 10 mm (PM10) and diameter ≤ 2.5 mm (PM2.5) as well as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) have considerable impact on human mortality, especially in the cases when cardiovascular or respiratory causes are attributed. Additionally, they affect morbidity. An estimation of human mortality and morbidity due to the increased concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 between the years 2005-2013 was performed for the city of Kraków, Poland. For this purpose the Air Quality Health Impact Assessment Tool (AirQ) software was successfully applied. The Air Quality Health Impact Assessment Tool was used for the calculation of the total, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality as well as hospital admissions related to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Data on concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2, which was obtained from the website of the Voivodeship Inspectorate for Environmental Protection (WIOS) in Kraków, was used in this study. Total mortality due to exposure to PM10 in 2005 was found to be 41 deaths per 100 000 and dropped to 30 deaths per 100 000 in 2013. Cardiovascular mortality was 2 times lower than the total mortality. However, hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases were more than an order of magnitude higher than the respiratory mortality. The calculated total mortality due to PM2.5 was higher than that due to PM10. Air pollution was determined to have a significant effect on human health. The values obtained by the use of the AirQ software for the city of Kraków imply that exposure to polluted air can result in serious health problems. This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.

Overall human mortality and morbidity due to exposure to air pollution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucyna Samek

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Concentrations of particulate matter that contains particles with diameter ≤ 10 mm (PM10 and diameter ≤ 2.5 mm (PM2.5 as well as nitrogen dioxide (NO2 have considerable impact on human mortality, especially in the cases when cardiovascular or respiratory causes are attributed. Additionally, they affect morbidity. An estimation of human mortality and morbidity due to the increased concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 between the years 2005–2013 was performed for the city of Kraków, Poland. For this purpose the Air Quality Health Impact Assessment Tool (AirQ software was successfully applied. Material and Methods: The Air Quality Health Impact Assessment Tool was used for the calculation of the total, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality as well as hospital admissions related to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Data on concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2, which was obtained from the website of the Voivodeship Inspectorate for Environmental Protection (WIOS in Kraków, was used in this study. Results: Total mortality due to exposure to PM10 in 2005 was found to be 41 deaths per 100 000 and dropped to 30 deaths per 100 000 in 2013. Cardiovascular mortality was 2 times lower than the total mortality. However, hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases were more than an order of magnitude higher than the respiratory mortality. Conclusions: The calculated total mortality due to PM2.5 was higher than that due to PM10. Air pollution was determined to have a significant effect on human health. The values obtained by the use of the AirQ software for the city of Kraków imply that exposure to polluted air can result in serious health problems.

A comparison of due-date selection rules

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Baker, K.R.; Bertrand, J.W.M.

1981-01-01

In sequencing and scheduling models it is usually assumed that due dates represent exogeneous information. In many practical settings, however, due dates can be discretionary, or at least negotiable. Relatively few studies have incorporated discretionary due dates, and even then the rules proposed

Requirements on sealing measures due to gas production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arens, G.; Hoeglund, L.; Wiborgh, M.

1995-03-01

Since 1981 the former rock salt mine Bartensleben near Morsleben (former GDR) ERAM has been in operation as a repository for low and intermediate level radioactive waste. As a result of the reunification and the changed licensing situation a new closure concept for the repository has to be developed. During the post-operational phase of a repository for radioactive waste gas may be produced by corrosion of metals, microbial degradation and radiolytic decomposition. In the process of developing the concept to be used for backfilling and sealing in ERAM it is important that gas formed in the repository will not disrupt the barrier against radionuclide escape or enhance the radionuclide release. To evaluate the performance and the properties for a bentonite plug as the main element of the sealings gas transport modelling with TOUGH were performed. Due to the lack of site-specific data literature data were used. Consequently, large uncertainties in data remain at present, which were taken into account by a great number of parameter variations. To handle this a course discretisation for the calculations were developed. Started with a two-dimensional grid at the end the calculations were performed with a coarse one-dimensional grid. The primary question to answer in these calculations is if there is a risk for excessive pressurization of the repository caverns as a result of gas generation. In the reference case a maximum pressure of approximately 10 Mpa inside a cavern is reached after 1000 years which seems not to jeopardize the integrity of the repository.

Necrotizing fasciitis: unreliable MRI findings in the preoperative diagnosis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arslan, Arzu E-mail: arzuarslan@netscape.net; Pierre-Jerome, Claude; Borthne, Arne

2000-12-01

The authors present two cases of necrotizing fasciitis (NF), one case of dermatomyositis and one case of posttraumatic muscle injury, which have similar magnetic resonance imaging findings in terms of skin, subcutaneous fat, superficial and deep fasciae and muscle involvement. These cases highlight the need for cautious interpretation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, for they are nonspecific and the preoperative decision should be based mostly on the evolution of the clinical status.

Information Collection using Handheld Devices in Unreliable Networking Environments

Science.gov (United States)

2014-06-01

joint logistics operations center JMS Java Message System JUNG Java Universal Network/Graph Framework KTG Kestral Technology Group MILOB... Java Message System, a Publisher/Subscriber system that is explained in greater detail at either Oracle’s JMS site (Oracle 2014) or the JMS Wikipedia...Google’s infrastructure and local servers with MySQL and PostgreSQL on the backend (ODK 2014b). (2) Google Fusion Tables are used to do basic link

Incorporating an ISO 8583-Service into an Unreliable Application

OpenAIRE

Funcke, Alexander

2008-01-01

If an existing service is to be made available to a broader audience, via for instance the Internet. The implementation of the service may thereby get many new requirements, such as support for a different access method or stricter authorisation and security policies. This thesis discusses the implementation of an ISO 8583 to XML proxy. ISO 8583 is a widely used financial protocol, and was in this project used to communicate with the backing financial server in order to implement a complete w...

Economics of Wind Power when National Grids are Unreliable

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooten, van G.C.; Wong, L.

2010-01-01

Power interruptions are a typical characteristic of national grids in developing countries. Manufacturing, processing, refrigeration and other facilities that require a dependable supply of power, and might be considered a small grid within the larger national grid, employ diesel generators for

Probabilistic Analysis of the Quality Calculus

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielson, Hanne Riis; Nielson, Flemming

2013-01-01

We consider a fragment of the Quality Calculus, previously introduced for defensive programming of software components such that it becomes natural to plan for default behaviour in case the ideal behaviour fails due to unreliable communication. This paper develops a probabilistically based trust...... analysis supporting the Quality Calculus. It uses information about the probabilities that expected input will be absent in order to determine the trustworthiness of the data used for controlling the distributed system; the main challenge is to take accord of the stochastic dependency between some...

Probabilistic Mobility Models for Mobile and Wireless Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Song, Lei; Godskesen, Jens Christian

2010-01-01

In this paper we present a probabilistic broadcast calculus for mobile and wireless networks whose connections are unreliable. In our calculus broadcasted messages can be lost with a certain probability, and due to mobility the connection probabilities may change. If a network broadcasts a message...... from a location it will evolve to a network distribution depending on whether nodes at other locations receive the message or not. Mobility of locations is not arbitrary but guarded by a probabilistic mobility function (PMF) and we also define the notion of a weak bisimulation given a PMF...

Generalized peritonitis due to perforated diverticulitis: Hartmann's procedure or primary anastomosis?

Science.gov (United States)

Trenti, Loris; Biondo, Sebastiano; Golda, Thomas; Monica, Millan; Kreisler, Esther; Fraccalvieri, Domenico; Frago, Ricardo; Jaurrieta, Eduardo

2011-03-01

Hartmann's procedure (HP) still remains the most frequently performed procedure for diffuse peritonitis due to perforated diverticulitis. The aims of this study were to assess the feasibility and safety of resection with primary anastomosis (RPA) in patients with purulent or fecal diverticular peritonitis and review morbidity and mortality after single stage procedure and Hartmann in our experience. From January 1995 through December 2008, patients operated for generalized diverticular peritonitis were studied. Patients were classified into two main groups: RPA and HP. A total of 87 patients underwent emergency surgery for diverticulitis complicated with purulent or diffuse fecal peritonitis. Sixty (69%) had undergone HP while RPA was performed in 27 patients (31%). At the multivariate analysis, RPA was associated with less post-operative complications (P clinical anastomotic leakage and needed re-operation. RPA can be safely performed without adding morbidity and mortality in cases of diffuse diverticular peritonitis. HP should be reserved only for hemodynamically unstable or high-risk patients. Specialization in colorectal surgery improves mortality and raises the percentage of one-stage procedures.

Two cases of acute lead poisoning due to occupational exposure to lead.

Science.gov (United States)

Ogawa, Masanori; Nakajima, Yoshiaki; Kubota, Ryuichi; Endo, Yoko

2008-04-01

We experienced two cases of acute lead poisoning due to occupational exposure to lead. The patients were engaged in stripping off antirust compounds including Pb from a bridge and re-painting it at the same work place. Both patients exhibited colic, arthralgia, and anemia. Blood lead levels were 73.1 microg/dl and 96.3 microg/dl. Intravenous CaEDTA chelation therapy was therefore performed. After chelation, blood lead levels decreased and symptoms gradually disappeared. Although the patients were working with protective equipment, the workplace was in the mountains and there was no water for washing. The patients were thus unable to washing their hands and faces. We assume that they swallowed lead dust left on their hands and faces when they removed their clothing, and believe that this poisoning occurred due to lack of knowledge sufficient for protection.

Knee joint pain potentially due to bone alterations in a knee osteoarthritis patient.

Science.gov (United States)

Komatsu, Masatoshi; Nakamura, Yukio; Kamimura, Mikio; Uchiyama, Shigeharu; Mukaiyama, Keijiro; Ikegami, Shota; Kato, Hiroyuki

2014-12-01

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the leading cause of musculoskeletal pain and functional disability worldwide. However, the etiology of this condition is still largely unknown. We report the clinical course of an elderly man with knee OA. Plain radiographs and MRI examinations performed during follow-up suggested that the pathophysiology of the patient's knee OA and joint pain may have been primarily due to bone alterations.

GEM: Performance and aging tests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, H.S.; Kadyk, J.; Han, S.H.; Hong, W.S.; Perez-Mendez, V.; Wenzel, W.; Pitts, K.; Martin, M.D.; Hutchins, J.B.

1999-01-01

Performance and aging tests have been done to characterize Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs), including further design improvements such as a thicker GEM and a closed GEM. Since the effective GEM gain is typically smaller than the absolute GEM gain, due to trapping of avalanche electrons at the bottom GEM electrode, the authors performed field simulations and measurements for better understanding, and discuss methods to eliminate this effect. Other performance parameters of the GEMs are also presented, including absolute GEM gain, short-term and long-term gain stabilities

Adhesive small bowel obstruction due to pelvic inflammatory disease: A case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Razan A Al-Ghassab

2018-01-01

Full Text Available We report a rare case of a 32-year-old woman with adhesive small bowel obstruction due to pelvic inflammatory disease. She had no history of abdominal surgery, gynecological complaints or constitutional symptoms of chronic illness. The diagnosis was based on the laparoscopic findings of small bowel adhesions, free peritoneal fluid, “violin string” adhesions of Fitz-Hugh–Curtis syndrome and left hydrosalpinx. Laparoscopic adhesiolysis was performed successfully, and the patient had an uneventful postoperative course. The authors conclude that pelvic inflammatory disease should be included as a cause of adhesive small bowel obstruction in sexually active young women with no history of abdominal surgery or constitutional symptoms of chronic disease. When performed by experienced surgeons, laparoscopy in such patients is feasible and safe.

Catatonia due to systemic lupus erythematosus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco de Assis Pinto Cabral Júnior Rabello

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Objectives Discuss neuropsychiatric aspects and differential diagnosis of catatonic syndrome secondary to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE in a pediatric patient. Methods Single case report. Result A 13-year-old male, after two months diagnosed with SLE, started to present psychotic symptoms (behavioral changes, hallucinations and delusions that evolved into intense catatonia. During hospitalization, neuroimaging, biochemical and serological tests for differential diagnosis with metabolic encephalopathy, neurological tumors and neuroinfections, among other tests, were performed. The possibility of neuroleptic malignant syndrome, steroid-induced psychosis and catatonia was also evaluated. A complete reversal of catatonia was achieved after using benzodiazepines in high doses, associated with immunosuppressive therapy for lupus, which speaks in favor of catatonia secondary to autoimmune encephalitis due to lupus. Conclusion Although catatonia rarely is the initial clinical presentation of SLE, the delay in recognizing the syndrome can be risky, having a negative impact on prognosis. Benzodiazepines have an important role in the catatonia resolution, especially when associated with parallel specific organic base cause treatment. The use of neuroleptics should be avoided for the duration of the catatonic syndrome as it may cause clinical deterioration.

Radiation risk due to occupational exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kargbo, A.A

2012-04-01

Exposure to ionizing radiation occurs in many occupations. Workers can be exposed to both natural and artificial sources of radiation. Any exposure to ionizing radiation incurs some risk, either to the individual or to the individual's progeny. This dissertation investigated the radiation risk due to occupational exposure in industrial radiography. Analysis of the reported risk estimates to occupational exposure contained in the UNSCEAR report of 2008 in industrial radiography practice was done. The causes of accidents in industrial radiography include: Lack of or inadequate regulatory control, inadequate training, failure to follow operational procedures, human error, equipment malfunction or defect, inadequate maintenance and wilful violation have been identified as primary causes of accidents. To minimise radiation risks in industrial radiography exposure devices and facilities should be designed such that there is intrinsic safety and operational safety ensured by establishing a quality assurance programme, safety culture fostered and maintained among all workers, industrial radiography is performed in compliance with approved local rules, workers engaged have appropriate qualifications and training, available safe operational procedures are followed, a means is provided for detecting incidents and accidents and an analysis of the causes and lessons learned. (author)

Infeasibility of endoscopic transmural drainage due to pancreatic pseudocyst wall calcifications - case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Krajewski, Andrzej; Lech, Gustaw; Makiewicz, Marcin; Kluciński, Andrzej; Wojtasik, Monika; Kozieł, Sławomir; Słodkowski, Maciej

2017-02-28

Postinflammatory pancreatic pseudocysts are one of the most common complications of acute pancreatitis. In most cases, pseudocysts self-absorb in the course of treatment of pancreatitis. In some patients, pancreatic pseudocysts are symptomatic and cause pain, problems with gastrointestinal transit, and other complications. In such cases, drainage or resection should be performed. Among the invasive methods, mini invasive procedures like endoscopic transmural drainage through the wall of the stomach or duodenum play an important role. For endoscopic transmural drainage, it is necessary that the cyst wall adheres to the stomach or duodenum, making a visible impression. We present a very rare case of infeasibility of endoscopic drainage of a postinflammatory pancreatic pseudocyst, impressing the stomach, due to cyst wall calcifications. A 55-year-old man after acute pancreatitis presented with a 1-year history of epigastric pain and was admitted due to a postinflammatory pseudocyst in the body and tail of pancreas. On admission, blood tests, including CA 19-9 and CEA, were normal. An ultrasound examination revealed a 100-mm pseudocyst in the tail of pancreas, which was confirmed on CT and EUS. Acoustic shadowing caused by cyst wall calcifications made the cyst unavailable to ultrasound assessment and percutaneous drainage. Gastroscopy revealed an impression on the stomach wall from the outside. The patient was scheduled for endoscopic transmural drainage. After insufflation of the stomach, a large mass protruding from the wall was observed. The stomach mucosa was punctured with a cystotome needle knife, and the pancreatic cyst wall was reached. Due to cyst wall calcifications, endoscopic drainage of the cyst was unfeasible. Profuse submucosal bleeding at the puncture site was stopped by placing clips. The patient was scheduled for open surgery, and distal pancreatectomy with splenectomy was performed. The histopathological examination confirmed the initial diagnosis

Allele frequency changes due to hitch-hiking in genomic selection programs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Huiming; Sørensen, Anders Christian; Meuwissen, Theo H E

2014-01-01

of inbreeding due to changes in allele frequencies and hitch-hiking. This study aimed at understanding the impact of using long-term genomic selection on changes in allele frequencies, genetic variation and the level of inbreeding. Methods Selection was performed in simulated scenarios with a population of 400......-BLUP, Genomic BLUP and Bayesian Lasso. Changes in allele frequencies at QTL, markers and linked neutral loci were investigated for the different selection criteria and different scenarios, along with the loss of favourable alleles and the rate of inbreeding measured by pedigree and runs of homozygosity. Results...

Panhypopituitarism Due to Hemochromatosis

OpenAIRE

Mesut Özkaya; Kadir Gis; Ali Çetinkaya

2013-01-01

Hemochromatosis is an iron storage disease. Panhypopituitarism is a clinical condition in which the anterior pituitary hormones are deficient. Herein, we report a rare case of panhypopituitarism due to hemochromatosis. Turk Jem 2013; 17: 125-6

Constitutional Due Process and Educational Administration.

Science.gov (United States)

Uerling, Donald F.

1985-01-01

Discusses substantive and procedural due process as required by the United States Constitution and interpreted by the Supreme Court, with particular reference to situations arising in educational environments. Covers interests protected by due process requirements, the procedures required, and some special considerations that may apply. (PGD)

Molecular Diagnosis of Polycystic Echinococcosis Due to Echinococcus vogeli in a Paraguayan Immigrant in Argentina

Science.gov (United States)

Frider, B.; Alvarez Rodriguez, J.; Amante, M.; Pestalardo, M. L.; Cazorla, A.; Bresson-Hadni, S.; Millon, L.

2013-01-01

Polycystic echinococcosis due to Echinococcus vogeli is a rare parasitic infection that occurs in rural areas of Central and South America. Only molecular identification performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded liver tissue samples gave an unequivocal diagnosis of this disease in a Paraguayan immigrant in Argentina. PMID:23824768

(Biased) Grading of Students’ Performance: Students’ Names, Performance Level, and Implicit Attitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Bonefeld, Meike; Dickhäuser, Oliver

2018-01-01

Biases in pre-service teachers’ evaluations of students’ performance may arise due to stereotypes (e.g., the assumption that students with a migrant background have lower potential). This study examines the effects of a migrant background, performance level, and implicit attitudes toward individuals with a migrant background on performance assessment (assigned grades and number of errors counted in a dictation). Pre-service teachers (N = 203) graded the performance of a student who appeared to have a migrant background statistically significantly worse than that of a student without a migrant background. The differences were more pronounced when the performance level was low and when the pre-service teachers held relatively positive implicit attitudes toward individuals with a migrant background. Interestingly, only performance level had an effect on the number of counted errors. Our results support the assumption that pre-service teachers exhibit bias when grading students with a migrant background in a third-grade level dictation assignment. PMID:29867618

(Biased Grading of Students’ Performance: Students’ Names, Performance Level, and Implicit Attitudes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meike Bonefeld

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Biases in pre-service teachers’ evaluations of students’ performance may arise due to stereotypes (e.g., the assumption that students with a migrant background have lower potential. This study examines the effects of a migrant background, performance level, and implicit attitudes toward individuals with a migrant background on performance assessment (assigned grades and number of errors counted in a dictation. Pre-service teachers (N = 203 graded the performance of a student who appeared to have a migrant background statistically significantly worse than that of a student without a migrant background. The differences were more pronounced when the performance level was low and when the pre-service teachers held relatively positive implicit attitudes toward individuals with a migrant background. Interestingly, only performance level had an effect on the number of counted errors. Our results support the assumption that pre-service teachers exhibit bias when grading students with a migrant background in a third-grade level dictation assignment.

Integration of the functional reliability of two passive safety systems to mitigate a SBLOCA+BO in a CAREM-like reactor PSA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mezio, Federico, E-mail: federico.mezio@cab.cnea.gov.ar [CNEA, Sede Central, Av. Del Libertador 8250, CABA (Argentina); Grinberg, Mariela [CNEA, Centro Atómico Bariloche, S.C. de Bariloche, Río Negro (Argentina); Lorenzo, Gabriel [CNEA, Sede Central, Av. Del Libertador 8250, CABA (Argentina); Giménez, Marcelo [CNEA, Centro Atómico Bariloche, S.C. de Bariloche, Río Negro (Argentina)

2014-04-01

Highlights: • An estimation of the Functional Unreliability was performed using RMPS methodology. • The methodology uses an improved response surface in order to estimate the FU. • The FU may become relevant to be analyzed in the Passive Safety Systems. • There were proposed two ways to incorporate the FU into an APS. - Abstract: This paper describes a case study of a methodological approach for assessing the functional reliability of passive safety systems (PSS) and its treatment within a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). The functional unreliability (FU) can be understood as the failure probability of PSS to fulfill its mission due to the impairment of the related passive safety function. The safety function accomplishment is characterized and quantified by a performance indicator (PI), which is a measure of how far the system is from verifying its mission. PI uncertainties are estimated from uncertainty propagation of selected parameters. A methodology based on the reliability methodology for passive system (RMPS) one is used to estimate the FU associated to the isolation condensers (ICs) in combination with the accumulators (medium pressure injection system) of a CAREM-like integral advanced reactor. A small break loss of coolant accident with black-out is selected as an evaluation case. This implies success of reactor shut-down (inherent) and failure of residual heat removal by active systems. The safety function to accomplish is to refill the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in order to avoid core damage. For this case, to allow the discharge of accumulators into RPV, the pressure must be reduced by the IC. The methodology for passive safety function assessment considers uncertainties in code parameters, besides uncertainties in engineering parameters (design, construction, operation and maintenance), in order to perform Monte Carlo simulations based on best estimate (B-E) plant model. Then, response surfaces based on PI are used for improving the

Documenting and automating collateral evolutions in Linux device drivers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Padioleau, Yoann; Hansen, René Rydhof; Lawall, Julia

2008-01-01

. Manually performing such collateral evolutions is time-consuming and unreliable, and has lead to errors when modifications have not been done consistently. In this paper, we present an automatic program transformation tool, Coccinelle, for documenting and automating device driver collateral evolutions...... programmer. We have evaluated our approach on 62 representative collateral evolutions that were previously performed manually in Linux 2.5 and 2.6. On a test suite of over 5800 relevant driver files, the semantic patches for these collateral evolutions update over 93% of the files completely...

Poultry performance in different grazing densities: forage characteristics, losses due to grazing and feed intake

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciano Cristiano França

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Morphological characteristics of three forage species grazed by rustic poultry in stocking were evaluated. Coast-cross fodder, kikuyu grass, and stylosanthes were planted in 33-m2 paddocks with two densities (m2/animal: D1 = 3m2/animal and D2 = 1m2/animal. The design was a randomized complete block with a 3 x 2 factorial (three grasses and two densities and three replications. Grass canopy height, grass mass, morphological composition (leaf, stem, and dead material, losses due to grazing, poultry weight gain and consumption, and concentrate feed conversion ratio and efficiency were evaluated. At the end of the experiment, forage and leaves masses were considered low to stylosanthes in D2 (0.28 to 0.03 kg/m2 and to kikuyu grass in D1 (0.13 to 0.05 kg/m2 and in D2 (0.11 and 0.03 kg/m2, respectively. In addition, the grass canopy height was considered low for stylosanthes (6.50 cm that could jeopardize the entry of new poultry lot. The three grass species had similar weight gain and revealed better results for 3m²/ chicken (3.20 kg/animal. Coast-cross fodder, kikuyu grass, and stylosanthes, with some exceptions, can be considered suitable for grazing fattening poultry at 3m2/animal at the evaluated time of the year (autumn.

34 CFR 674.41 - Due diligence-general requirements.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Due diligence-general requirements. 674.41 Section 674... POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FEDERAL PERKINS LOAN PROGRAM Due Diligence § 674.41 Due diligence—general requirements. (a) General. Each institution shall exercise due diligence in collecting...

Investigating sea level rise due to global warming in the teaching laboratory using Archimedes’ principle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hughes, Stephen; Pearce, Darren

2015-01-01

A teaching laboratory experiment is described that uses Archimedes’ principle to precisely investigate the effect of global warming on the oceans. A large component of sea level rise is due to the increase in the volume of water due to the decrease in water density with increasing temperature. Water close to 0 °C is placed in a beaker and a glass marble hung from an electronic balance immersed in the water. As the water warms, the weight of the marble increases as the water is less buoyant due to the decrease in density. In the experiment performed in this paper a balance with a precision of 0.1 mg was used with a marble 40.0 cm 3 and mass of 99.3 g, yielding water density measurements with an average error of −0.008 ± 0.011%. (paper)

Performance improvement program: goals and experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guglielmi, F.

2015-01-01

Following long 54 month refurbishment outage at Point Lepreau Generating Station, operational performance had fallen below industry standards in a number of areas. Leadership development and succession planning had stalled. Operational focus was low primarily due to the construction focus during refurbishment. Condition of balance of plant was poor including several long standing deficiencies. In order to improve performance, the site implemented a framework based on INPO 12-011: Focus on Improving Behaviours; Set common goals and demonstrate results; Align and engage the organization; Drive to achieve high levels of performance and sustain performance.

Performance improvement program: goals and experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guglielmi, F. [Point Lepreau Generating Station, Maces Bay, New Brunswick (Canada)

2015-07-01

Following long 54 month refurbishment outage at Point Lepreau Generating Station, operational performance had fallen below industry standards in a number of areas. Leadership development and succession planning had stalled. Operational focus was low primarily due to the construction focus during refurbishment. Condition of balance of plant was poor including several long standing deficiencies. In order to improve performance, the site implemented a framework based on INPO 12-011: Focus on Improving Behaviours; Set common goals and demonstrate results; Align and engage the organization; Drive to achieve high levels of performance and sustain performance.

A Delayed Recrudescent Case of Sigmoidocutaneous Fistula due to Diverticulitis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takaaki Fujii

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Colocutaneous fistula caused by diverticulitis is relatively rare, and a delayed recrudescent case of colocutaneous fistula is very uncommon. We herein report a rare case of a Japanese 56-year-old male with delayed recrudescent sigmoidocutaneous fistula due to diverticulitis. A colocutaneous fistula was formed after a drainage operation against a perforation of the sigmoid colon diverticulum. After 5 years from treatment, he was admitted to our hospital because of lower abdominal pain. We diagnosed the recrudescent sigmoidocutaneous fistula by abdominal computed tomography and gastrografin enema, and managed the patient with total parenteral nutrition and antibiotics. As the fistula formation did not improve, a low anterior resection with fistulectomy was performed. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged. It has been reported that, in fistulas of the skin caused by diverticular disease, complete closure of the fistula by conservative therapy may not be possible. This case also implies the possibility of a recurrence of the fistula even if the conservative treatment was effective. In cases of colocutaneous fistulas due to diverticulitis, radical surgery is considered necessary because of possibility of recurrence of the fistula.

Seismic performance evaluation of existing RC buildings designed ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

zone (by accounting for the confinement provided by the stirrups using a .... loss due to damage and cost of repair, major revisions are taking place in .... The acceptance criteria for performance with in the damage control performance range.

Determination of serum 25-hydroxy cholecalciferol using high-performance liquid chromatography: a reliable tool for assessment of vitamin D status.

Science.gov (United States)

Neyestani, Tirang R; Gharavi, A'azam; Kalayi, Ali

2007-09-01

This study was undertaken to design and set up a rather simple, reliable, and less expensive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based method to assay 25(OH)D as a diagnostic tool for vitamin D assessment. Serum proteins were precipitated using ethanol and, after 10 minutes incubation at room temperature, methanol:isopropanol. The extraction was performed using hexane followed by evaporation under nitrogen flow. The sediment was then reconstituted in methanol and passed through a polypropylene filter. To run the chromatographic analysis, 20 microL of the filtrate was injected to the column. Peaks of 25(OH)D2 and 25(OH)D3 were both detected using a UV detector set at 265 nm. With a flow rate of 1.2 mL/minute, peaks of D3 and D2 vitamers were detected around 9.5 and 10.7 minutes, respectively. The intra- and inter-assay variations were 8.1% and 12.6%, respectively, and the recovery percent was found to be 100 +/- 5%. To compare the procedure with conventional methods, 90 serum samples from subjects (48 females and 42 males) aged 40.5 +/- 13.9 yrs, were analyzed for 25(OH)D using HPLC, competitive protein-binding assay (CPBA), and radioimmunoassay (RIA). Generally, CPBA and RIA assays both showed over-estimation of serum 25(OH)D, compared to HPLC. Though all three methods correlated significantly with each other, with the strongest between HPLC and RIA (r = 0.87, p < 0.001), both RIA and CPBA were found unreliable in detection of some deficient samples.

21 CFR 60.36 - Standard of due diligence.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Standard of due diligence. 60.36 Section 60.36... TERM RESTORATION Due Diligence Petitions § 60.36 Standard of due diligence. (a) In determining the due diligence of an applicant, FDA will examine the facts and circumstances of the applicant's actions during...

Peritoneal tuberculosis due to Mycobacterium caprae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Nebreda

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The incidence of tuberculosis in humans due to Mycobacterium caprae is very low and is almost confined to Europe. We report a case of a previously healthy 41-year-old Moroccan with a 6 month history of abdominal pain, weight loss, fatigue and diarrhea. A diagnosis of peritoneal tuberculosis due to M. caprae was made.

Public opinion on Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirose, Hirotada

2013-01-01

This article showed trend of public opinion on nuclear power after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, for which the survey had been done five times under the same method and inquiries. Most unreliable source of information at disaster was government ministries and offices, whose unreliability sharply increased from 20% to about 50% after 3 months later and one year later after March 11 and reliability after 2 year and 5 months later (August 2013) was not high and almost comparable with unreliability of 27%. Nuclear disaster was most serious cause of Great East Japan earthquake disaster (60%) and not entirely ended due to such increase of contaminated water. Public opinion survey in August 2013 showed nuclear power stoppage totaled about 80% with immediate of about 30% and phaseout of about 50%, and possibility of occurrence of another nuclear accident comparable with Fukushima disaster was almost 80% with a belief not only earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorism but also human errors might initiate nuclear disaster if nuclear power restarted. Future most serious disaster would be earthquake (50%) and nuclear disaster (35%). Nuclear accident preparedness of government and local government was not enough (58% and 24%) and nothing (33% and 24%). Residents within UPZ (Urgent Protection action Planning Zone) of 30 km radius could not evacuate safely (57%) and entirely (22%). If government and local government encouraged damaged residents to come home with declaration of safety for evacuation area of nuclear accident, damaged residents might not return almost (46%) and entirely (9%). Notwithstanding people's strong feeling against nuclear power, LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) promoting nuclear power won an overwhelming victory at the election of House of Councilors in July 2013. Public opinion survey in August 2013 showed most important issue of voters was party's image (25%), economic measures (20%) and candidate's personality (13%), and nuclear power policy was only 5%. (T

Splenic infarction associated with acute infectious mononucleosis due to Epstein-Barr virus infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Heo, Dae-Hyuk; Baek, Dae-Youb; Oh, Sang-Min; Hwang, Joo-Hee; Lee, Chang-Seop; Hwang, Jeong-Hwan

2017-02-01

The purpose of this study was to report a case of a previously healthy 20-year-old woman diagnosed with splenic infarction following infectious mononucleosis (IM) by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and to perform the first systematic review of the clinical characteristics of splenic infarction associated with IM. A systematic review was conducted using English, French, and Japanese literatures of splenic infarction associated with IM due to EBV infection published between 1961 and 2015 in PubMed Medline. A total of 19 cases were extracted from the collected articles. Left upper quadrant (LUQ) pain was observed in 15 (79%) patients. Splenectomy was performed in five (26%) cases, among which four patients presented with stable vital signs. Splenic rupture was accompanied in two (10%) patients. The median time from the onset of IM symptoms to the diagnosis of splenic infarction was 5 days (range, 1-25 days). Fourteen (74%) of 19 patients experienced improvement through medical treatment, and there were no deaths. Splenic infarction associated with IM due to EBV infection can show a favorable clinical outcome after medical treatment. Clinicians should consider the possibility of splenic infarction when patients with IM experience LUQ pain. J. Med. Virol. 89:332-336, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Recurrent Syncope due to Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Casini

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Syncope is caused by a wide variety of disorders. Recurrent syncope as a complication of malignancy is uncommon and may be difficult to diagnose and to treat. Primary neck carcinoma or metastases spreading in parapharyngeal and carotid spaces can involve the internal carotid artery and cause neurally mediated syncope with a clinical presentation like carotid sinus syndrome. We report the case of a 76-year-old man who suffered from recurrent syncope due to invasion of the right carotid sinus by metastases of a carcinoma of the esophagus, successfully treated by radiotherapy. In such cases, surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy can be performed. Because syncope may be an early sign of neck or cervical cancer, the diagnostic approach of syncope in patients with a past history of cancer should include the possibility of neck tumor recurrence or metastasis and an oncologic workout should be considered.

Social influence on metacognitive evaluations: The power of nonverbal cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Eskenazi, Terry; Montalan, Benoît; Jacquot, Amélie; Proust, Joëlle; Grèzes, Julie; Conty, Laurence

2016-11-01

Metacognitive evaluations refer to the processes by which people assess their own cognitive operations with respect to their current goal. Little is known about whether this process is susceptible to social influence. Here we investigate whether nonverbal social signals spontaneously influence metacognitive evaluations. Participants performed a two-alternative forced-choice task, which was followed by a face randomly gazing towards or away from the response chosen by the participant. Participants then provided a metacognitive evaluation of their response by rating their confidence in their answer. In Experiment 1, the participants were told that the gaze direction was irrelevant to the task purpose and were advised to ignore it. The results revealed an effect of implicit social information on confidence ratings even though the gaze direction was random and therefore unreliable for task purposes. In addition, nonsocial cues (car) did not elicit this effect. In Experiment 2, the participants were led to believe that cue direction (face or car) reflected a previous participant's response to the same question-that is, the social information provided by the cue was made explicit, yet still objectively unreliable for the task. The results showed a similar social influence on confidence ratings, observed with both cues (car and face) but with an increased magnitude relative to Experiment 1. We additionally showed in Experiment 2 that social information impaired metacognitive accuracy. Together our results strongly suggest an involuntary susceptibility of metacognitive evaluations to nonverbal social information, even when it is implicit (Experiment 1) and unreliable (Experiments 1 and 2).

Feasibility of transient elastography versus real-time two-dimensional shear wave elastography in difficult-to-scan patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Staugaard, Benjamin; Christensen, Peer Brehm; Mössner, Belinda; Hansen, Janne Fuglsang; Madsen, Bjørn Stæhr; Søholm, Jacob; Krag, Aleksander; Thiele, Maja

2016-11-01

Transient elastography (TE) is hampered in some patients by failures and unreliable results. We hypothesized that real time two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE), the FibroScan XL probe, and repeated TE exams, could be used to obtain reliable liver stiffness measurements in patients with an invalid TE examination. We reviewed 1975 patients with 5764 TE exams performed between 2007 and 2014, to identify failures and unreliable exams. Fifty-four patients with an invalid TE at their latest appointment entered a comparative feasibility study of TE vs. 2D-SWE. The initial TE exam was successful in 93% (1835/1975) of patients. Success rate increased from 89% to 96% when the XL probe became available (OR: 1.07, 95% CI 1.06-1.09). Likewise, re-examining those with a failed or unreliable TE led to a reliable TE in 96% of patients. Combining availability of the XL probe with TE re-examination resulted in a 99.5% success rate on a per-patient level. When comparing the feasibility of TE vs. 2D-SWE, 96% (52/54) of patients obtained a reliable TE, while 2D-SWE was reliable in 63% (34/54, p < 0.001). The odds of a successful 2D-SWE exam decreased with higher skin-capsule distance (OR = 0.77, 95% CI 0.67-0.98). Transient elastography can be accomplished in nearly all patients by use of the FibroScan XL probe and repeated examinations. In difficult-to-scan patients, the feasibility of TE is superior to 2D-SWE.

Urinary retention due to herpes virus infections.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamanishi, T; Yasuda, K; Sakakibara, R; Hattori, T; Uchiyama, T; Minamide, M; Ito, H

1998-01-01

Urinary retention is uncommon in patients with herpes zoster and anogenital herpes simplex. Seven patients (four men, three women) with a mean age of 68.1 years (range, 35-84) with urinary retention due to herpes zoster (n = 6) or anogenital herpes simplex (n = 1) were studied. Six patients had unilateral skin eruption in the saddle area (S2-4 dermatome) and one patient with herpes zoster had a skin lesion in the L4-5 dermatome. All patients had detrusor areflexia without bladder sensation, and two of them had inactive external sphincter on electromyography at presentation. Clean intermittent catheterization was performed, and voiding function was recovered in 4-6 weeks (average, 5.4) in all patients. Urodynamic study was repeated after recovery of micturition in three patients, and they returned to normal on cystometrography and external sphincter electromyography. Acute urinary retention associated with anogenital herpes infection has been thought to occur when the meninges or sacral spinal ganglia were involved, and, in conclusion, this condition may be considered to be reversible.

Performance Improvement of a Centrifugal Compressor by Passive Means

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Sitaram

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The present experimental investigation deals with performance improvement of a low-speed centrifugal compressor by inexpensive passive means such as turbulence generator placed at different positions and partial shroud near the rotor blade tip. The experiments are carried out at three values of tip clearance, namely 2.2%, 5.1%, and 7.9% of rotor blade height at the exit. Performance tests are carried out for a total of 13 configurations. From these measurements, partial shroud is found to give the best performance. The improvement in the compressor performance may be due to the reduction of tip leakage flows by the small extension of partial shroud (2 mm on the pressure surface side. Although there is nominal change in performance due to turbulence generator (TG, TG has beneficial effect of increased operating range.

An unreliable group arrival queue with k stages of service, retrial under variant vacation policy

Science.gov (United States)

Radha, J.; Indhira, K.; Chandrasekaran, V. M.

2017-11-01

In this research work we considered repairable retrial queue with group arrival and the server utilize the variant vacations. A server gives service in k stages. Any arriving group of units finds the server free, one from the group entering the first stage of service and the rest are joining into the orbit. After completion of the i th stage of service, the customer may have the option to choose (i+1)th stage of service with probability θi , with probability pi may join into orbit as feedback customer or may leave the system with probability {q}i=≤ft\\{\\begin{array}{l}1-{p}i-{θ }i,i=1,2,\\cdots k-1\\ 1-{p}i,i=k\\end{array}\\right\\}. If the orbit is empty at the service completion of each stage service, the server takes modified vacation until at least one customer appears in the orbit on the server returns from a vacation. Busy server may get to breakdown and the service channel will fail for a short interval of time. By using the supplementary variable method, steady state probability generating function for system size, some system performance measures are discussed.

U.S. report on fuel performance and technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cook, T [Department of Energy, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Engineering and Technology Development

1997-12-01

The report reviews the following aspects of fuel performance and technology: increased demand on fuel performance;improved fuel failure rate; operating fuel cycles; capacity factor for US nuclear electric generating plants; potential reduction of SNF due to improved fuel burnup.

Overload Control in a SIP Signaling Network

OpenAIRE

Masataka Ohta

2007-01-01

The Internet telephony employs a new type of Internet communication on which a mutual communication is realized by establishing sessions. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is used to establish sessions between end-users. For unreliable transmission (UDP), SIP message should be retransmitted when it is lost. The retransmissions increase a load of the SIP signaling network, and sometimes lead to performance degradation when a network is overloaded. The paper proposes an overload control for a S...

48 CFR 1852.216-88 - Performance incentive.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... credit the next payment voucher for the amount due, as directed by the Contracting Officer. (2) When the performance level exceeds the standard level, the Contractor may request payment of the incentive amount associated with a given level of performance, provided that such payments shall not be more frequent than...

Enhancing Backyard Poultry Enterprise Performance in the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Elfreda Yaa Donkor

2012-02-01

Feb 1, 2012 ... survive per hatch and were able to sustain year round production compared to mostly seasonal production among low performance farmers due to higher mortality rates among their birds. At the input supply level, both high and low performing BP farmers secured and reared indigenous chicken breeds with ...

Life Forecasting as a Logistics Technique.

Science.gov (United States)

1982-01-01

emphasized the consequences of unreliability. L.. Asm Unreliability results in excess costs and time wasted, introduces the psychological effect of...34, Proceedings of the ASME Gas Turbine Division Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 1977. 10. Nondestructive Inspection and quality Control...the literature of reliability as the hazard rate. In actuarial statistics the hazard rate goes under the name of force of mortality, in extreme-value

Professional performance in school

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rubio, J. F.

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Professional performance in education is now calling the attention of researcher due to its role in the professionalizing process intended to increase international education standards. In this article the term professional performance is examined from the two socio-historic traditional roles involved in training the individuals as a bio-psychic and social entity: teachers and executive. By means of scientific methods, the author gives the theoretical grounds connecting professional performance, learning and individual capacity of using them in solving problem at his labor position. The professional performance is regarded as a human value that stimulates the activity. By predicting educational alternatives, the paper portraits a model of professional performance in education, referring the necessary actions needed for achieving the goals of education. Searching and discussing such alternatives leads to reinterpret professional problems and to find out ways of improving educational standards.

Reduction of artefacts due to missing projections using OSEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hutton, B.F.; Kyme, A.; Choong, K.

2002-01-01

Full text: It is well recognised that missing or corrupted projections can result in artefacts. This occasionally occurs due to errors in data transfer from acquisition memory to disk. A possible approach for reducing these artefacts was investigated, Using ordered subsets expectation maximization (OSEM) the iterative reconstruction proceeds by progressively including additional projections until a single iteration is complete. Clinically useful results can be obtained using a small subset size in a single iteration. Stopping prior to the complete iteration so as to avoid inclusion of missing or corrupted data should provide a 'partial' reconstruction with minimal artefacts. To test this hypothesis projections were selectively removed from a complete data set (2, 4, 8, 12 adjacent projections) and reconstructions were performed using both filtered back projection (FBP) and OSEM. To maintain a constant number of sub-iterations in OSEM an equal number of duplicate projections were substituted for the missing projections. Both 180 and 360 degrees reconstructions with missing data were compared with reconstruction for the complete data using sum of absolute differences. Results indicate that missing data causes artefacts for both FBP and OSEM however the severity of artefacts is significantly reduced using OSEM. The effect of missing data is generally greater for 180 degrees acquisition. OSEM is recommended for minimising reconstruction artefacts due to missing projections. Copyright (2002) The Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Inc

Governance among Malaysian high performing companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asri Marsidi

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Well performed companies have always been linked with effective governance which is generally reflected through effective board of directors. However many issues concerning the attributes for effective board of directors remained unresolved. Nowadays diversity has been perceived as able to influence the corporate performance due to the likelihood of meeting variety of needs and demands from diverse customers and clients. The study therefore aims to provide a fundamental understanding on governance among high performing companies in Malaysia.

[Surgical Treatment of Bronchial Stricture due to Endobronchial Tuberculosis: 
Results in 36 Consecutive Cases].

Science.gov (United States)

Ruan, Junzhong; Zhang, Tianhui; Li, Fugen; Duan, Yong; Han, Ming; Wang, Zitong

2018-04-20

Bronchial tuberculosis is a common complication of pulmonary tuberculosis. The present report is to investigate and analyze the indication and efficacy of surgical treatment of bronchial stricture due to severe endobronchial tuberculosis, when the drug and endoscopic treatment were no effect. Reviewed the clinical-pathological records documenting the surgical outcomes in 36 bronchial stricture due to severe endobronchial tuberculosis who underwent lobectomy or pneumonectomy enrolled in our hospital between January 2000 and February 2016. Pneumonectomy in 8 cases, lobectomy in 23 cases, sleeve resection in 5 cases. No intraoperative or early postoperative death occurred. Six patients developed complications. All 6 cases recovered well after treatment. Surgical treatment is still the recommended treatment modatity for bronchial stricture caused by endobronchial tuberculosis due to its good results. It should be performed in time when the drug and intraluninal treatment were no effect for avoiding of being progeressed.

Application of Solar Chimney Concept to Solve Potential Safety Issues of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khasawneh, Khalid; PARK, Youn Won

2014-01-01

LUHS. In addition to its dual functionality; it provides a complete independent and diverse means of safety functions supporting, a free carbon oxide power production source and allow following the world's trend toward the usage of renewable energy sources. The Solar Chimney Power Plant was suggested to be employed as a supporting system for NPPs to provide emergency power, in case of SBO, and emergency cooling, in case of LUHS. It provides a complete independent and diverse means of safety function supporting. Following the SCPP operation requirements of the availability of high solar irradiation, the UAE region provides a perfect environment for its implementation; furthermore, it can be linked to the under-construction NPPs at Al-Barakah site to deliver alternative emergency power and emergency cooling. Due to the inherent unreliability of the currently utilized EDGs and the AAC power sources, a postulated SBO event could affect the safety of the NPP in general, and for the specific case of the UAE NPPs, a LUHS caused by oil spill accident in the UHS could be experienced, given the massive oil related activates being performed in the Arabian Gulf. Comparing the similarity between Al-Barakah site and the Loviisa NPP in Finland; looking for solution and alternatives for the enhancement of their reactors safety should be considered by the UAE nuclear regulator

Application of Solar Chimney Concept to Solve Potential Safety Issues of Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khasawneh, Khalid; PARK, Youn Won [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-10-15

LUHS. In addition to its dual functionality; it provides a complete independent and diverse means of safety functions supporting, a free carbon oxide power production source and allow following the world's trend toward the usage of renewable energy sources. The Solar Chimney Power Plant was suggested to be employed as a supporting system for NPPs to provide emergency power, in case of SBO, and emergency cooling, in case of LUHS. It provides a complete independent and diverse means of safety function supporting. Following the SCPP operation requirements of the availability of high solar irradiation, the UAE region provides a perfect environment for its implementation; furthermore, it can be linked to the under-construction NPPs at Al-Barakah site to deliver alternative emergency power and emergency cooling. Due to the inherent unreliability of the currently utilized EDGs and the AAC power sources, a postulated SBO event could affect the safety of the NPP in general, and for the specific case of the UAE NPPs, a LUHS caused by oil spill accident in the UHS could be experienced, given the massive oil related activates being performed in the Arabian Gulf. Comparing the similarity between Al-Barakah site and the Loviisa NPP in Finland; looking for solution and alternatives for the enhancement of their reactors safety should be considered by the UAE nuclear regulator.

Analysis of the Mechanism of Longitudinal Bending Deformation Due to Welding in a Steel Plate by Using a Numerical Model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Yong Rae; Yan, Jieshen; Kim, Jae-Woong [Yeungnam Univ., Gyeongsan (Korea, Republic of); Song, Gyu Yeong [Gyeongbuk Hybrid Technology Institute, Yeongcheon (Korea, Republic of)

2017-01-15

Welding deformation is a permanent deformation that is caused in structures by welding heat. Welding distortion is the primary cause of reduced productivity, due to welded structural strength degradation, low dimensional accuracy, and appearance. As a result, research and numerous experiments are being carried out to control welding deformation. The aim of this study is to analyze the mechanism of longitudinal bending deformation due to welding. Welding experiments and numerical analyses were performed for this study. The welding experiments were performed on 4 mm and 8.5 mm thickness steel plates, and the numerical analysis was conducted on the welding deformation using the FE software MSC.marc.

Task-irrelevant auditory feedback facilitates motor performance in musicians

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Virginia eConde

2012-05-01

Full Text Available An efficient and fast auditory–motor network is a basic resource for trained musicians due to the importance of motor anticipation of sound production in musical performance. When playing an instrument, motor performance always goes along with the production of sounds and the integration between both modalities plays an essential role in the course of musical training. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of task-irrelevant auditory feedback during motor performance in musicians using a serial reaction time task (SRTT. Our hypothesis was that musicians, due to their extensive auditory–motor practice routine during musical training, have a superior performance and learning capabilities when receiving auditory feedback during SRTT relative to musicians performing the SRTT without any auditory feedback. Here we provide novel evidence that task-irrelevant auditory feedback is capable to reinforce SRTT performance but not learning, a finding that might provide further insight into auditory-motor integration in musicians on a behavioral level.

Postmortem computed tomographic (PMCT) findings of pericardial effusion due to acute aortic dissection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiotani, Seiji; Watanabe, Ko; Kohno, Mototsugu; Ohashi, Noriyoshi; Nakayama, Hidetsugu; Yamazaki, Kentaro

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study was to describe the appearance of pericardial effusion in deceased acute aortic dissection patients using postmortem computed tomography (PMCT). PMCT examinations were performed within 2 hours of death in 30 patients with pericardial effusion due to aortic dissection who arrived at our hospital in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest. Pericardial effusion in 18 of 30 patients (60%) showed double concentric rings on PMCT with striking differences in density, a low-density outer ring along the pericardium and a high-density inner ring on the epicardial surface (hyperdense armored heart). Pericardial effusion in two patients (7%) showed a high-density fluid level (hypostasis). Pericardial effusion in the remaining 10 patients (33%) showed no such stratification. A ''hyperdense armored heart'' is the most frequently seen PMCT finding in deceased cases of pericardial effusion due to acute aortic dissection. (author)

Subarachnoid Hemorrhage due to Spinal Cord Schwannoma Presenting Findings Mimicking Meningitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hong-Mei; Zhang, Yin-Xi; Zhang, Qing; Song, Shui-Jiang; Liu, Zhi-Rong

2016-08-01

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) of spinal origin is uncommon in clinical practice, and spinal schwannomas associated with SAH are even more rarely reported. We report an unusual case of spinal SAH mimicking meningitis with normal brain computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and negative CT angiography. Cerebrospinal fluid examination results were consistent with the manifestation of SAH. Spinal MRI performed subsequently showed an intradural extramedullary mass. The patient received surgery and was finally diagnosed with spinal cord schwannoma. A retrospective chart review of the patient was performed. We describe a case of SAH due to spinal cord schwannoma. Our case highlights the importance of careful history taking and complete evaluation. We emphasize that spinal causes should always be ruled out in patients with angionegative SAH and that schwannoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of SAH etiologies even though rare. Copyright © 2016 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A SVM-based quantitative fMRI method for resting-state functional network detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Xiaomu; Chen, Nan-kuei

2014-09-01

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) aims to measure baseline neuronal connectivity independent of specific functional tasks and to capture changes in the connectivity due to neurological diseases. Most existing network detection methods rely on a fixed threshold to identify functionally connected voxels under the resting state. Due to fMRI non-stationarity, the threshold cannot adapt to variation of data characteristics across sessions and subjects, and generates unreliable mapping results. In this study, a new method is presented for resting-state fMRI data analysis. Specifically, the resting-state network mapping is formulated as an outlier detection process that is implemented using one-class support vector machine (SVM). The results are refined by using a spatial-feature domain prototype selection method and two-class SVM reclassification. The final decision on each voxel is made by comparing its probabilities of functionally connected and unconnected instead of a threshold. Multiple features for resting-state analysis were extracted and examined using an SVM-based feature selection method, and the most representative features were identified. The proposed method was evaluated using synthetic and experimental fMRI data. A comparison study was also performed with independent component analysis (ICA) and correlation analysis. The experimental results show that the proposed method can provide comparable or better network detection performance than ICA and correlation analysis. The method is potentially applicable to various resting-state quantitative fMRI studies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Carbon nanomaterials for high-performance supercapacitors

OpenAIRE

Tao Chen; Liming Dai

2013-01-01

Owing to their high energy density and power density, supercapacitors exhibit great potential as high-performance energy sources for advanced technologies. Recently, carbon nanomaterials (especially, carbon nanotubes and graphene) have been widely investigated as effective electrodes in supercapacitors due to their high specific surface area, excellent electrical and mechanical properties. This article summarizes the recent progresses on the development of high-performance supercapacitors bas...

Emergency transcatheter arterial embolization for critical massive bleeding due to duodenal bulb ulcer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Qiang; Li Yiyun; Zhao Chunmei

2011-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of emergency transcatheter arterial embolization (ETAE) in treating critical massive bleeding due to duodenal bulb ulcer. Methods: ETAE was carried out in seven patients with acute massive bleeding due to endoscopically-proved duodenal bulb ulcer, who failed to respond conservative measures and were critically ill clinically. Super-selective catheterization of gastroduodenal artery or right gastroepiploic artery was performed, which was followed by arterial angiography to identify the bleeding site. According to the angiographic findings, ETAE with Gelfoam particles and coils was carried out. After the operation medical management was given and endoscopy re-examination was conducted. All the patients were follow up for 3∼6 months. Results: Angiographically, gastroduodenal artery bleeding was detected in all seven patients. ETAE was successfully accomplished in all cases. Complete clinical effectiveness was obtained in six patients while partial effectiveness in one case. No procedure-related complications occurred. Conclusion: For critical massive bleeding due to duodenal bulb ulcer ETAE is a highly effective and safe treatment, which can be regarded as an alternative to surgery. It is worth popularizing this technique in clinical practice. (authors)

Maternal Impression Management in the Assessment of Childhood Depressive Symptomatology.

Science.gov (United States)

Lilly, Megan; Davis, Thompson E; Castagna, Peter J; Marker, Arwen; Davis, Allison B

2018-02-27

Self-report instruments are commonly used to assess for childhood depressive symptoms. Historically, clinicians have relied heavily on parent-reports due to concerns about childrens' cognitive abilities to understand diagnostic questions. However, parents may also be unreliable reporters due to a lack of understanding of their child's symptomatology, overshadowing by their own problems, and tendencies to promote themselves more favourably in order to achieve desired assessment goals. One such variable that can lead to unreliable reporting is impression management, which is a goal-directed response in which an individual (e.g. mother or father) attempts to represent themselves, or their child, in a socially desirable way to the observer. This study examined the relationship between mothers who engage in impression management, as measured by the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form defensive responding subscale, and parent-/child-self-reports of depressive symptomatology in 106 mother-child dyads. 106 clinic-referred children (mean child age = 10.06 years, range 7-16 years) were administered the Child Depression Inventory, and mothers (mean mother age = 40.80 years, range 27-57 years) were administered the Child-Behavior Checklist, Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, and Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. As predicted, mothers who engaged in impression management under-reported their child's symptomatology on the anxious/depressed and withdrawn subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist. Moreover, the relationship between maternal-reported child depressive symptoms and child-reported depressive symptoms was moderated by impression management. These results suggest that children may be more reliable reporters of their own depressive symptomatology when mothers are highly defensive or stressed.

A balanced strategy in managing steam generator thermal performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, M. H.; Nelson, P. R.

2009-01-01

This paper presents a balanced strategy in managing thermal performance of steam generator designed to deliver rated megawatt thermal (MWt) and megawatt electric (MWe) power without loss with some amount of thermal margin. A steam generator (SG) is a boiling heat exchanger whose thermal performance may degrade because of steam pressure loss. In other words, steam pressure loss is an indicator of thermal performance degradation. Steam pressure loss is mainly a result of either 1) tube scale induced poor boiling or 2) tube plugging historically resulting from tubing corrosion, wear due to flow induced tube vibration or loose parts impact. Thermal performance degradation was historically due to tube plugging but more recently it is due to poor boiling caused by more bad than good constituents of feedwater impurities. The whole SG industry still concentrates solely on maintenance programs towards preventing causes for tube plugging and yet almost no programs on maintaining adequate boiling of fouled tubes. There can be an acceptable amount of tube scale that provides excellent boiling capacity without tubing corrosion, as operational experience has repeatedly demonstrated. Therefore, future maintenance has to come up balanced programs for allocating limited resources in both maintaining good boiling capacity and preventing tube plugging. This paper discusses also thermal performance degradation due to feedwater impurity induced blockage of tube support plate and thus subsequent water level oscillations, and how to mitigate them. This paper provides a predictive management of tube scale for maintaining adequate steam pressure and stable water level without loss in MWt/MWe or recovering from steam pressure loss or water level oscillations. This paper offers a balanced strategy in managing SG thermal performance to fulfill its mission. Such a strategy is even more important in view of the industry trend in pursuing extended power uprate as high as 20 percent

Pattern analysis of patients with temporomandibular disorders resulting from unilateral mastication due to chronic periodontitis

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to perform a pattern analysis in patients with temporomandibular disorder (TMD) resulting from unilateral mastication due to chronic periodontitis. Methods Thirty participants with signs or symptoms of TMD who engaged in unilateral mastication due to periodontitis-related discomfort (test group) were selected. Another 30 subjects exhibiting signs or symptoms of TMD resulting from unilateral mastication not due to chronic periodontitis (control group) were also recruited. An interview-based questionnaire was administered, and an examination of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) with determination of periodontal status was performed. Results The duration of unilateral mastication was significantly longer in the control group than in the test group. There was a significant negative correlation between the duration of unilateral mastication and the Community Periodontal Index score. Using the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) axis I algorithms, all the subjects were assigned to 3 main groups. The test group exhibited significantly a higher diagnostic distribution of group III (arthralgia, osteoarthritis, or osteoarthrosis), and in both the test and control groups, the number of diagnoses was larger for the non-chewing side. The control group showed a significantly higher diagnostic distribution of group I (myofacial pain), and in both the test and control groups, the number of diagnoses was larger for the chewing side. Conclusions The results of the present study indicate that unilateral mastication due to chronic periodontitis could induce not only pain but also structural TMJ changes if adequate treatment is not administered and supported within a short time from the onset of the condition. Therefore, immediate treatment of chronic periodontitis is recommended to prevent not only the primary progress of periodontal disease, but also secondary TMJ-related problems. Furthermore, subjects who have suffered chronic

Particle resuspension due to human walking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mana, Zakaria

2014-01-01

In nuclear facilities, during normal operations in controlled areas, workers could be exposed to radioactive aerosols (1 μm ≤ dp ≤ 10 μm). One of the airborne contamination sources is particles that are initially seeded on the floor and could be removed by workers while they are walking. During the outage of EDF nuclear facilities, there is a resuspension of some radionuclides in aerosol form (1 μm ≤ dp ≤ 10 μm). Since the number of co-activity will increase in reactors buildings of EDF, it becomes important to understand particle resuspension due to the activity of the operators to reduce their radiation exposure. The purpose of this Ph.D thesis is to quantify the resuspension of particles due to the progress of operators on a contaminated soil. Thus, the approach is to combine an aerodynamic resuspension model with numerical calculations of flow under a shoe, and then to characterize experimentally some input parameters of the model (particle diameter, adhesion forces, shoes motion). The resuspension model Rock'n'Roll proposed by Reeks and Hall (2001) was chosen because it describes physically the resuspension mechanism and because it is based on the moment of forces applied to a particle. This model requires two input parameters such as friction velocity and adhesion forces distribution applied on each particle. Regarding the first argument, numerical simulations were carried on using the ANSYS CFX software applied to a safety shoe in motion (digitized by 3D CAO); the mapping of friction velocity shows values of about 1 m.s -1 for an angular average velocity of 200 degrees.s -1 . As regards the second parameter, AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) measurements were carried out with alumina and cobalt oxide particles in contact with epoxy surfaces representative of those encountered in EDF power plants. AFM provides the distribution of adhesion forces and reveals a much lower value than what can be calculated theoretically using JKR model (Johnson

Pyelo-cystic Reflux in F-18 FDG PET Scan Due to Ureteral Obstruction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reyhan, Mehmet [Baskent Univ., Adana (Turkmenistan)

2013-09-15

A 72-year-old woman with a history of cervical cancer was treated with brachytherapy and chemotherapy. Combined F-18 FDG PET/CT performed for restaging demonstrated increased FDG uptake in a hypodense cystic lesion at the posterior part of the right renal cortex and a hypermetabolic soft tissue mass at the right parailiac region suggestive of a metastatic lymph node causing ureteral obstruction. There had been no FDG uptake in the cystic lesion on the FDG PET/CT study performed 1 year before. These findings suggest that the increased FDG uptake in the cystic lesion was caused by pyelocystic reflux due to ureteral obstruction secondary to parailiac lymph node metastasis (Figs. 1 and 2). Several renal lesions may have increased metabolism, such as renal cell carcinoma, lymphoma, oncocytoma, adult Wilms' tumor, angiomyolipoma, metastatic lesions, xanthogranulo-matous pyelonephritis and infected cyst. Most of these lesions are solid. Some infected renal cysts may be FDG avid, but in this situation increased FDG uptake is observed on the wall of the cyst. In our case, FDG uptake was seen in the entire cystic lesion. The patient had no symptoms or laboratory findings related to infection. Cysts are the most common space-occupying lesions of the kidney. The vast majority of these are simple cysts that are usually unilateral and solitary. Simple cysts are asymptomatic, except when complications exist such as hemorrhage, infection or rupture. There have been a few reports on spontaneous communications between renal cysts and the pyelocaliceal system, in most cases involving ruptures of the cysts into the pyelocaliceal system due to increased intracystic pressure caused by bleeding or infection of the cyst. In the present case, the cause of the connection between the cystic cavity and the pyelocaliceal system is the increased pressure in the renal pelvic cavity due to the ureteral obstruction secondary to parailiac lymph node metastasis.

The prognosis of retinal detachment due to lattice degeneration.

Science.gov (United States)

Benson, W E; Morse, P H

1978-09-01

In a series of 553 consecutive retinal detachments, 29% (120) were due to lattice degeneration. Forty-five percent of these were due to atrophic holes in the lattice degeneration and 55% were due to tears caused by traction posterior to or at the end of a patch of lattice. In phakic patients, retinal detachments due to atrophic holes were most common in young myopes. Detachments due to traction tears were seen in older, less myopic patients. The incidence of massive periretinal proliferation was less (5%) in detachments due to lattice degeneration than in detachments not due to lattice degeneration (6.5%).

Dose due to 40K

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Escareno J, E.; Vega C, H. R.

2011-10-01

The dose due to 40 K has been estimated. Potassium is one of the most abundant elements in nature, being approximately 2% of the Earth's crust. Potassium has three isotopes 39 K, 40 K and 41 K, two are stable while 40 K is radioactive with a half life of 1.2x10 9 years; there is 0.0117% 40 K-to-K ratio. Potassium plays an important role in plants, animals and humans growth and reproduction. Due to the fact that K is an essential element for humans, 40 K is the most abundant radioisotope in human body. In order to keep good health conditions K must be intake at daily basis trough food and beverages, however when K in ingested above the requirements produce adverse health effects in persons with renal, cardiac and hypertension problems or suffering diabetes. In 89.3% 40 K decays to 40 C through β-decay, in 10.3% decays through electronic capture and emitting 1.46 MeV γ-ray. K is abundant in soil, construction materials, sand thus γ-rays produced during 40 K decay contribute to external dose. For K in the body practically all 40 K decaying energy is absorbed by the body; thus 40 K contributes to total dose in humans and it is important to evaluate its contribution. In this work a set of 40 K sources were prepared using different amounts of KCl salt, a γ-ray spectrometer with a NaI(Tl) was characterized to standardized the sources in order to evaluate the dose due to 40 K. Using thermoluminescent dosemeters the dose due to 40 K was measured and related to the amount of 40 K γ-ray activity. (Author)

A method for analysing incidents due to human errors on nuclear installations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffon, M.

1980-01-01

This paper deals with the development of a methodology adapted to a detailed analysis of incidents considered to be due to human errors. An identification of human errors and a search for their eventual multiple causes is then needed. They are categorized in eight classes: education and training of personnel, installation design, work organization, time and work duration, physical environment, social environment, history of the plant and performance of the operator. The method is illustrated by the analysis of a handling incident generated by multiple human errors. (author)

Evaluation of teachers' performance of vision screening in primary

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Dr. Petronilla

Evaluation of Teachers' Performance of Vision Screening in Primary. School Children in Port ... teachers can effectively perform vision screening in school children using ..... may be due to variations in methodology and definitions used, as this ...

Due diligence duties for an environmental liability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huebsch, M.

2000-04-01

Jurisdiction turned out well to create a basic ruling for due diligence duties. These due diligence duties are high standards for the law of torts (outside of contracts) within the Austrian civil law and represent a liability-extension for the holder of the source of danger. They establish an action for injunction in particular for preventing (further) damages. Therewith due diligence duties get a general sense in the range of a civil law for environmental liability. The responsible holder of a danger zone will therefore influence his way of acting to protect potential victims and the environment. The burden of proof is on the plaintiff (victims) under the Civil Code. Victims have specific sources of danger including high endangering special facilities in their argumentation with the so-called prima-facie-proof or first-appearance-proof. A turning back of the presentation of evidence to the polluter is wrong. The polluter himself has a continuing liability for dangerous activities and his clerks in the case of an extremely high danger of damage. All due diligence duties can be arranged in three areas: in information-, danger-avoidance- and danger-prevention-duties. The determination of range and essence of the duties has to be adjusted to each individual case. The range of the specific danger area is the essential link. The intensity of due diligence duties is increasing with the size of danger in the way of a movable system depending on the protected interest. Due diligence duties have to be kept within reasonable limits with two criterions: necessarity and demand. Proportionality of actions is a third criterion to avoid exaggeration of due diligence duties to obtain an effective protection for victims including the environment. (author)

Double intervention in management of acute obstructive renal failure due to pelvic malignancies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Jingbing; Wang Han; An Xiao; Wang Linchuan; Gao Liqiang; Zhang Guixiang

2008-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the clinical value and safety of combined percutaneous nephrostomy and antegrade double-pigtail stenting with regional intrarterial infusion chemotherapy in the management of acute obstructive renal failure secondary to pelvic primary malignant tumor and metastasis. Methods: Percutaneous unilateral nephrostomy and stenting were done in 18 cases of acute malignant obstructive renal failure due to bilateral ureteral obstruction. Regional TAIs with routine drug dosage were performed after 3 to 5 days of restoration of normal renal function. Results: Seventeen procedures were all successful in the first attempt, except 1 was interrupted due to massive left perirenal hematoma which was controlled by segemental renal arterial embolization with gelform particals and secondary successful PCN was performed in right kidney 5 days later. No other serious complications occurred. The levels of pretreatment serum creatinine were 175.40 μmol/L to 1040.70 μmol/L, with bleeding tendency in 6 cases, and all returned to normal from 2 to 7 days after successful PCN. Follow-up was taken from 3 months to 15 months, averaging 7 months. Conclusion: The combined percutaneous nephrostomy and antegrade double-pigtail stenting with regional intraarterial infusion chemotherapy in the management of acute obstructive renal failure secondary to pelvic malignant tumors is safe, feasible, less complications, providing the prolongation of patient's survival span. (authors)

Nonlinear Performance Characteristics of Flux-Switching PM Motors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Ilhan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Nonlinear performance characteristics of 3-phase flux-switching permanent magnet motors (FSPM are overviewed. These machines show advantages of a robust rotor structure and a high energy density. Research on the FSPM is predominated by topics such as modeling and machine comparison, with little emphasis given on its performance and limits. Performance characteristics include phase flux linkage, phase torque, and phase inductance. In the paper, this analysis is done by a cross-correlation of rotor position and armature current. Due to the high amount of processed data, which cannot be handled analytically within an acceptable time period, a multistatic 2D finite element model (FEM is used. For generalization, the most commonly discussed FSPM topology, 12/10 FSPM, is chosen. Limitations on the motor performance due to the saturation are discussed on each characteristic. Additionally, a focused overview is given on energy conversion loops and dq-axes identification for the FSPM.

The Arachnid Fauna of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park Part 1 A revision of the species of "Mole Solifuges" of the genus cheltpus purcell, 1901 (family hexisopodidae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruno Lamoral

1973-07-01

Full Text Available Basic explanations and illustrations of morphological terminology currently used in solifuge taxonomy are providedtogether with keys to the known families of solifuges fromsouthern Africa and the revised species of Chelypus Purcell. Themorphological criteria used by previous authors to differentiatecertain species of Chelypus are shown to be unreliable due to intraspecific variations. As a result of this C. macronyx Hewitt, 1919 is placed in synonymy of C. barberi Purcell, 1901. In addition,C. kalaharicus Lawrence, 1949 and C. wiihiischi Roewer, 1941 areplaced in synonymy of C. hirsti Hewitt, 1915. Chelypus coatoni Lawrence, 1966 is transferred to Siloanea coatoni (Lawrence, 1966.

Two-Step Fair Scheduling of Continuous Media Streams over Error-Prone Wireless Channels

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Soohyun; Lee, Jin Wook; Park, Taejoon; Jo, Tae-Chang

In wireless cellular networks, streaming of continuous media (with strict QoS requirements) over wireless links is challenging due to their inherent unreliability characterized by location-dependent, bursty errors. To address this challenge, we present a two-step scheduling algorithm for a base station to provide streaming of continuous media to wireless clients over the error-prone wireless links. The proposed algorithm is capable of minimizing the packet loss rate of individual clients in the presence of error bursts, by transmitting packets in the round-robin manner and also adopting a mechanism for channel prediction and swapping.

Probing deeper by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Risterucci, P.; Renault, O., E-mail: olivier.renault@cea.fr; Martinez, E.; Delaye, V. [CEA, LETI, MINATEC Campus, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 09 (France); Detlefs, B. [CEA, LETI, MINATEC Campus, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 09 (France); European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, F-38043 Grenoble (France); Zegenhagen, J. [European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, F-38043 Grenoble (France); Gaumer, C. [STMicroelectronics, 850 rue Jean Monnet, 38926 Crolles (France); Grenet, G. [Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (INL), UMR CNRS 5270, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, 36, avenue Guy de Collongue 69 134 Ecully Cedex (France); Tougaard, S. [Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M (Denmark)

2014-02-03

We report an hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy method combining high excitation energy (15 keV) and improved modelling of the core-level energy loss features. It provides depth distribution of deeply buried layers with very high sensitivity. We show that a conventional approach relying on intensities of the core-level peaks is unreliable due to intense plasmon losses. We reliably determine the depth distribution of 1 ML La in a high-κ/metal gate stack capped with 50 nm a-Si. The method extends the sensitivity of photoelectron spectroscopy to depths beyond 50 nm.

Experimental techniques and theoretical models for the study of integral 14 MeV neutron cross sections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Csikai, J.

1981-01-01

Owing to technical reasons, most of the data for fast neutron-induced reactions were measured at 14 MeV and the free parameters in nuclear reaction models have been determined at this energy. The discrepancies between experiment and theory are often due to the unmeasured or unreliable experimental data; therefore, it is important to survey the present techniques used for the measurement of total, elastic, nonelastic and partial nonelastic [(n,xn); (n,x charged); (n,f); (n,γ)] cross sections for 14 MeV neutrons. Systematics in the data as well as theoretical and semi-empirical models are also outlined. (author)

The local enhancement conundrum: in search of the adaptive value of a social learning mechanism.

Science.gov (United States)

Arbilly, Michal; Laland, Kevin N

2014-02-01

Social learning mechanisms are widely thought to vary in their degree of complexity as well as in their prevalence in the natural world. While learning the properties of a stimulus that generalize to similar stimuli at other locations (stimulus enhancement) prima facie appears more useful to an animal than learning about a specific stimulus at a specific location (local enhancement), empirical evidence suggests that the latter is much more widespread in nature. Simulating populations engaged in a producer-scrounger game, we sought to deploy mathematical models to identify the adaptive benefits of reliance on local enhancement and/or stimulus enhancement, and the alternative conditions favoring their evolution. Surprisingly, we found that while stimulus enhancement readily evolves, local enhancement is advantageous only under highly restricted conditions: when generalization of information was made unreliable or when error in social learning was high. Our results generate a conundrum over how seemingly conflicting empirical and theoretical findings can be reconciled. Perhaps the prevalence of local enhancement in nature is due to stimulus enhancement costs independent of the learning task itself (e.g. predation risk), perhaps natural habitats are often characterized by unreliable yet highly rewarding payoffs, or perhaps local enhancement occurs less frequently, and stimulus enhancement more frequently, than widely believed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Supercapacitors Performance Evaluation

OpenAIRE

Zhang, S; Pan, N

2015-01-01

The performance of a supercapacitor can be characterized by a series of key parameters, including the cell capacitance, operating voltage, equivalent series resistance, power density, energy density, and time constant. To accurately measure these parameters, a variety of methods have been proposed and are used in academia and industry. As a result, some confusion has been caused due to the inconsistencies between different evaluation methods and practices. Such confusion hinders effective com...

Investigation of fatalities due to acute gasoline poisoning.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, María A; Ballesteros, Salomé

2005-10-01

This paper presents a simple, rapid, reliable, and validated method suited for forensic examination of gasoline in biological samples. The proposed methodology has been applied to the investigation of four fatal cases due to gasoline poisoning that occurred in Spain in 2003 and 2004. Case histories and pathological and toxicological findings are described in order to illustrate the danger of gasoline exposure under several circumstances. Gasoline's tissular distribution, its quantitative toxicological significance, and the possible mechanisms leading to death are also discussed. The toxicological screening and quantitation of gasoline was performed by means of gas chromatography (GC) with flame-ionization detection, and confirmation was performed using GC-mass spectrometry in total ion chromatogram mode. m,p-Xylene peak was selected to estimate gasoline in all biological samples. Gasoline analytical methodology was validated at five concentration levels from 1 to 100 mg/L. The method provided extraction recoveries between 77.6% and 98.3%. The limit of detection was 0.3 mg/L, and the limit of quantitation was 1.0 mg/L. The linearity of the blood calibration curves was excellent with r2 values of > 0.997. Intraday and interday precisions had a coefficient of variation inhalation of gasoline vapor inside a small enclosed space. Case 3 is a death by recreational gasoline inhalation in a male adolescent. Heart blood concentrations were 28.4, 18.0, and 38.3 mg/L, respectively; liver concentrations were 41.4, 52.9, and 124.2 mg/kg, respectively; and lung concentrations were 5.6, 8.4, and 39.3 mg/kg, respectively. Case 4 was an accidental death due to gasoline ingestion of a woman with senile dementia. Peripheral blood concentration was 122.4 mg/L, the highest in our experience. Because pathological findings were consistent with other reports of gasoline intoxication and constituents of gasoline were found in the body, cause of death was attributed to acute gasoline

Reliability analysis of the Ahringer Caenorhabditis elegans RNAi feeding library: a guide for genome-wide screens

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lu Yiming

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Ahringer C. elegans RNAi feeding library prepared by cloning genomic DNA fragments has been widely used in genome-wide analysis of gene function. However, the library has not been thoroughly validated by direct sequencing, and there are potential errors, including: 1 mis-annotation (the clone with the retired gene name should be remapped to the actual target gene; 2 nonspecific PCR amplification; 3 cross-RNAi; 4 mis-operation such as sample loading error, etc. Results Here we performed a reliability analysis on the Ahringer C. elegans RNAi feeding library, which contains 16,256 bacterial strains, using a bioinformatics approach. Results demonstrated that most (98.3% of the bacterial strains in the library are reliable. However, we also found that 2,851 (17.54% bacterial strains need to be re-annotated even they are reliable. Most of these bacterial strains are the clones having the retired gene names. Besides, 28 strains are grouped into unreliable category and 226 strains are marginal because of probably expressing unrelated double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs. The accuracy of the prediction was further confirmed by direct sequencing analysis of 496 bacterial strains. Finally, a freely accessible database named CelRNAi (http://biocompute.bmi.ac.cn/CelRNAi/ was developed as a valuable complement resource for the feeding RNAi library by providing the predicted information on all bacterial strains. Moreover, submission of the direct sequencing result or any other annotations for the bacterial strains to the database are allowed and will be integrated into the CelRNAi database to improve the accuracy of the library. In addition, we provide five candidate primer sets for each of the unreliable and marginal bacterial strains for users to construct an alternative vector for their own RNAi studies. Conclusions Because of the potential unreliability of the Ahringer C. elegans RNAi feeding library, we strongly suggest the user examine

Pancreatic Abscess in a cat due to Staphylococcus aureus infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Nemoto, Yuki; Haraguchi, Tomoya; Shimokawa Miyama, Takako; Kobayashi, Kosuke; Hama, Kaori; Kurogouchi, Yosuke; Fujiki, Noriyuki; Baba, Kenji; Okuda, Masaru; Mizuno, Takuya

2017-07-07

A 16-year-old spayed female American Shorthair cat was presented with lethargy, anorexia, and wamble. Physical and blood examination did not reveal any remarkable findings. Abdominal ultrasonography identified the presence of a localized anechoic structure with a thick wall in contact with the small intestine and adjacent to the liver. Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of the structure revealed fluid containing numerous cocci and neutrophils. Two days after antibiotic treatment, exploratory laparotomy was performed and the content of the structure was removed before multiple lavages. The pathological and bacteriological examination results supported a confirmatory diagnosis of pancreatic abscess due to Staphylococcus aureus infection, making this the first such report in a cat. The cat remained healthy thereafter with no disease recurrence.

Which DTW Method Applied to Marine Univariate Time Series Imputation

OpenAIRE

Phan , Thi-Thu-Hong; Caillault , Émilie; Lefebvre , Alain; Bigand , André

2017-01-01

International audience; Missing data are ubiquitous in any domains of applied sciences. Processing datasets containing missing values can lead to a loss of efficiency and unreliable results, especially for large missing sub-sequence(s). Therefore, the aim of this paper is to build a framework for filling missing values in univariate time series and to perform a comparison of different similarity metrics used for the imputation task. This allows to suggest the most suitable methods for the imp...

9 CFR 124.33 - Standard of due diligence.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Standard of due diligence. 124.33 Section 124.33 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... Diligence Petitions § 124.33 Standard of due diligence. (a) In determining the due diligence of an applicant...

Severity of explicit memory impairment due to Alzheimer's disease improves effectiveness of implicit learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Klimkowicz-Mrowiec, Aleksandra; Slowik, Agnieszka; Krzywoszanski, Lukasz; Herzog-Krzywoszanska, Radosława; Szczudlik, Andrzej

2008-04-01

Consistent evidence from human and experimental animals studies indicates that memory is organized into two relatively independent systems with different functions and brain mechanisms. The explicit memory system, dependent on the hippocampus and adjacent medial temporal lobe structures, refers to conscious knowledge acquisition and intentional recollection of previous experiences. The implicit memory system, dependent on the striatum, refers to learning of complex information without awareness or intention. The functioning of implicit memory can be observed in progressive, gradual improvement across many trials in performance on implicit learning tasks. The influence of explicit memory on implicit memory has not been precisely identified yet. According to data from some studies, explicit memory seems to exhibit no influence on implicit memory,whereas the other studies indicate that explicit memory may inhibit or facilitate implicit memory. The analysis of performance on implicit learning tasks in patients with different severity of explicit memory impairment due to Alzheimer's disease allows one to identify the potential influence of the explicit memory system on the implicit memory system. 51 patients with explicit memory impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 36 healthy controls were tested. Explicit memory was examined by means of a battery of neuropsychological tests. Implicit habit learning was examined on probabilistic classification task (weather prediction task). Patients with moderate explicit memory impairment performed the implicit task significantly better than those with mild AD and controls. Results of our study support the hypothesis of competition between the implicit and explicit memory systems in humans.

Partial drift volume due to a self-propelled swimmer

Science.gov (United States)

Chisholm, Nicholas G.; Khair, Aditya S.

2018-01-01

We assess the ability of a self-propelled swimmer to displace a volume of fluid that is large compared to its own volume via the mechanism of partial drift. The swimmer performs rectilinear locomotion in an incompressible, unbounded Newtonian fluid. The partial drift volume D is the volume of fluid enclosed between the initial and final profiles of an initially flat circular disk of marked fluid elements; the disk is initially aligned perpendicular to the direction of locomotion and subsequently distorted due to the passage of the swimmer, which travels a finite distance. To focus on the possibility of large-scale drift, we model the swimmer simply as a force dipole aligned with the swimming direction. At zero Reynolds number (Re =0 ), we demonstrate that D grows without limit as the radius of the marked fluid disk h is made large, indicating that a swimmer at Re =0 can generate a partial drift volume much larger than its own volume. Next, we consider a steady swimmer at small Re , which is modeled as the force-dipole solution to Oseen's equation. Here, we find that D no longer diverges with h , which is due to inertial screening of viscous forces, and is effectively proportional to the magnitude of the force dipole exerted by the swimmer. The validity of this result is extended to Re ≥O (1 ) —the realm of intermediate-Re swimmers such as copepods—by taking advantage of the fact that, in this case, the flow is also described by Oseen's equations at distances much larger than the characteristic linear dimension of the swimmer. Next, we utilize an integral momentum balance to demonstrate that our analysis for a steady inertial swimmer also holds, in a time-averaged sense, for an unsteady swimmer that does not experience a net acceleration over a stroke cycle. Finally, we use experimental data to estimate D for a few real swimmers. Interestingly, we find that D depends heavily on the kinematics of swimming, and, in certain cases, D can be significantly greater

Systemic contact dermatitis due to nickel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taruli Olivia

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Systemic contact dermatitis (SCD is a systemic reactivation of a previous allergic contact dermatitis. The initial exposure may usually be topical, followed by oral, intravenous or inhalation exposure leading to a systemic hypersensitivity reaction. A case of a 27 year-old male with SCD due to nickel is reported Case Report: A 27 year-old male presented with recurrent pruritic eruption consist of deep seated vesicles on both palmar and left plantar since 6 months before admission. This complaint began after patient consumed excessive amounts of chocolate, canned food, and beans. The patient worked as a technician in a food factory. History of allergy due to nickel was acknowledged since childhood. The clinical presentation was diffuse deep seated vesicles, and multiple erythematous macules to plaques, with collarette scale. Patch test using the European standard showed a +3 result to nickel. The patient was diagnosed as systemic contact dermatitis due to nickel. The treatments were topical corticosteroid and patient education of avoidance of both contact and systemic exposure to nickel. The patient showed clinical improvement after 2 weeks. Discussion: SCD was diagnosed due to the history of massive consumption of food containing nickel in a patient who had initial sensitization to nickel, with clinical features and the patch test result. Advice to be aware of nickel and its avoidance is important in SCD management.

Streamlining and Standardizing Due Diligence to Ensure Quality of PV Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-11-28

Those investing in PV power plants would like to have confidence that the plants will provide the anticipated return on investment. While due diligence is capably performed by independent engineers today, as PV systems mature, there will be benefit in standardization and streamlining of this process. The IECRE has defined technical information that is needed as a basis for each transaction step such as approving a design to begin construction, documenting readiness to operate, quantifying performance after a year of operation, and assessing the health of the plant in preparation for sale of the plant. The technical requirements have been defined by IEC Technical Committee 82 and have been designed to be both effective and efficient in completing the assessments. This workshop will describe these new tools that are now available to the community and will include a panel/audience discussion about how and when they can be most effectively used.

Turbulent momentum transport due to neoclassical flows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jungpyo; Barnes, Michael; Parra, Felix I; Belli, Emily; Candy, Jeff

2015-01-01

Intrinsic toroidal rotation in a tokamak can be driven by turbulent momentum transport due to neoclassical flow effects breaking a symmetry of turbulence. In this paper we categorize the contributions due to neoclassical effects to the turbulent momentum transport, and evaluate each contribution using gyrokinetic simulations. We find that the relative importance of each contribution changes with collisionality. For low collisionality, the dominant contributions come from neoclassical particle and parallel flows. For moderate collisionality, there are non-negligible contributions due to neoclassical poloidal electric field and poloidal gradients of density and temperature, which are not important for low collisionality. (paper)

Anxiety and Academic Reading Performance among Malay ESL Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Mohd. Zin, Zuhana; Rafik-Galea, Shameem

2010-01-01

Research into the factors that contribute to reading performance decrement in L2 reading among ESL university students is still being extensively researched in the context of ELT. This is because successful academic performance is highly dependent on good reading ability. While it is widely accepted that poor reading performance is due to lack of…

The performance and risk of Hartalega Holdings Berhad

OpenAIRE

Wong, Kah Wai

2017-01-01

The purpose of the study is to investigate the overall performance of Hartalega Holdings Berhad and specific risk factors and macroeconomic factors are influence on profitability performance. The data obtained from annual report of Hartalega Holdings Berhad during the years 2011 to 2015. The measurement of financial ratios and regression analysis used to see the overall performance and risk of the company. The study found that performance of the company is unfavourable due to the decreasing m...

Matrix-Geometric Method for Queueing Model with State-Dependent Arrival of an Unreliable Server and PH Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.ReniSagaya Raj

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we consider a state-dependent queueing system in which the system is subject to random breakdowns. Customer arrive at the system randomly following a Poisson process with state-dependent rates. Service times follows PH distribution and repair times are exponentially distributed. The server may fail to service with probability depending on the number of customer completed since the last repair. The main result of this paper is the matrix-geometric solution of the steady-state queue length from which many performance measurements of this queueing system like the stationary queue length distribution, waiting time distribution and the distribution of regular busy period, system utilization are obtained. Numerical examples are presented for both cases.

Short-Term Wind Power Forecasting Using the Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization Based Hybrid Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen-Yeau Chang

2013-09-01

Full Text Available High penetration of wind power in the electricity system provides many challenges to power system operators, mainly due to the unpredictability and variability of wind power generation. Although wind energy may not be dispatched, an accurate forecasting method of wind speed and power generation can help power system operators reduce the risk of an unreliable electricity supply. This paper proposes an enhanced particle swarm optimization (EPSO based hybrid forecasting method for short-term wind power forecasting. The hybrid forecasting method combines the persistence method, the back propagation neural network, and the radial basis function (RBF neural network. The EPSO algorithm is employed to optimize the weight coefficients in the hybrid forecasting method. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, the method is tested on the practical information of wind power generation of a wind energy conversion system (WECS installed on the Taichung coast of Taiwan. Comparisons of forecasting performance are made with the individual forecasting methods. Good agreements between the realistic values and forecasting values are obtained; the test results show the proposed forecasting method is accurate and reliable.

Analysis of human scream and its impact on text-independent speaker verification.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, John H L; Nandwana, Mahesh Kumar; Shokouhi, Navid

2017-04-01

Scream is defined as sustained, high-energy vocalizations that lack phonological structure. Lack of phonological structure is how scream is identified from other forms of loud vocalization, such as "yell." This study investigates the acoustic aspects of screams and addresses those that are known to prevent standard speaker identification systems from recognizing the identity of screaming speakers. It is well established that speaker variability due to changes in vocal effort and Lombard effect contribute to degraded performance in automatic speech systems (i.e., speech recognition, speaker identification, diarization, etc.). However, previous research in the general area of speaker variability has concentrated on human speech production, whereas less is known about non-speech vocalizations. The UT-NonSpeech corpus is developed here to investigate speaker verification from scream samples. This study considers a detailed analysis in terms of fundamental frequency, spectral peak shift, frame energy distribution, and spectral tilt. It is shown that traditional speaker recognition based on the Gaussian mixture models-universal background model framework is unreliable when evaluated with screams.

Promising high monetary rewards for future task performance increases intermediate task performance.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claire M Zedelius

Full Text Available In everyday life contexts and work settings, monetary rewards are often contingent on future performance. Based on research showing that the anticipation of rewards causes improved task performance through enhanced task preparation, the present study tested the hypothesis that the promise of monetary rewards for future performance would not only increase future performance, but also performance on an unrewarded intermediate task. Participants performed an auditory Simon task in which they responded to two consecutive tones. While participants could earn high vs. low monetary rewards for fast responses to every second tone, their responses to the first tone were not rewarded. Moreover, we compared performance under conditions in which reward information could prompt strategic performance adjustments (i.e., when reward information was presented for a relatively long duration to conditions preventing strategic performance adjustments (i.e., when reward information was presented very briefly. Results showed that high (vs. low rewards sped up both rewarded and intermediate, unrewarded responses, and the effect was independent of the duration of reward presentation. Moreover, long presentation led to a speed-accuracy trade-off for both rewarded and unrewarded tones, whereas short presentation sped up responses to rewarded and unrewarded tones without this trade-off. These results suggest that high rewards for future performance boost intermediate performance due to enhanced task preparation, and they do so regardless whether people respond to rewards in a strategic or non-strategic manner.

Promising high monetary rewards for future task performance increases intermediate task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Zedelius, Claire M; Veling, Harm; Bijleveld, Erik; Aarts, Henk

2012-01-01

In everyday life contexts and work settings, monetary rewards are often contingent on future performance. Based on research showing that the anticipation of rewards causes improved task performance through enhanced task preparation, the present study tested the hypothesis that the promise of monetary rewards for future performance would not only increase future performance, but also performance on an unrewarded intermediate task. Participants performed an auditory Simon task in which they responded to two consecutive tones. While participants could earn high vs. low monetary rewards for fast responses to every second tone, their responses to the first tone were not rewarded. Moreover, we compared performance under conditions in which reward information could prompt strategic performance adjustments (i.e., when reward information was presented for a relatively long duration) to conditions preventing strategic performance adjustments (i.e., when reward information was presented very briefly). Results showed that high (vs. low) rewards sped up both rewarded and intermediate, unrewarded responses, and the effect was independent of the duration of reward presentation. Moreover, long presentation led to a speed-accuracy trade-off for both rewarded and unrewarded tones, whereas short presentation sped up responses to rewarded and unrewarded tones without this trade-off. These results suggest that high rewards for future performance boost intermediate performance due to enhanced task preparation, and they do so regardless whether people respond to rewards in a strategic or non-strategic manner.

Large Civil Tiltrotor (LCTR2) Interior Noise Predictions due to Turbulent Boundary Layer Excitation

Science.gov (United States)

Grosveld, Ferdinand W.

2013-01-01

The Large Civil Tiltrotor (LCTR2) is a conceptual vehicle that has a design goal to transport 90 passengers over a distance of 1800 km at a speed of 556 km/hr. In this study noise predictions were made in the notional LCTR2 cabin due to Cockburn/Robertson and Efimtsov turbulent boundary layer (TBL) excitation models. A narrowband hybrid Finite Element (FE) analysis was performed for the low frequencies (6-141 Hz) and a Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) was conducted for the high frequency one-third octave bands (125- 8000 Hz). It is shown that the interior sound pressure level distribution in the low frequencies is governed by interactions between individual structural and acoustic modes. The spatially averaged predicted interior sound pressure levels for the low frequency hybrid FE and the high frequency SEA analyses, due to the Efimtsov turbulent boundary layer excitation, were within 1 dB in the common 125 Hz one-third octave band. The averaged interior noise levels for the LCTR2 cabin were predicted lower than the levels in a comparable Bombardier Q400 aircraft cabin during cruise flight due to the higher cruise altitude and lower Mach number of the LCTR2. LCTR2 cabin noise due to TBL excitation during cruise flight was found not unacceptable for crew or passengers when predictions were compared to an acoustic survey on a Q400 aircraft.

Tricuspid valve repair for severe tricuspid regurgitation due to pacemaker leads.

Science.gov (United States)

Uehara, Kyokun; Minakata, Kenji; Watanabe, Kentaro; Sakaguchi, Hisashi; Yamazaki, Kazuhiro; Ikeda, Tadashi; Sakata, Ryuzo

2016-07-01

Tricuspid valve regurgitation due to pacemaker leads is a well-known complication. Although some reports have suggested that pacemaker leads should be surgically explanted, strongly adhered leads cannot always be removed. The aim of this study was to describe our tricuspid valve repair techniques with pacemaker leads left in situ. Our retrospective study investigated 6 consecutive patients who required tricuspid valve surgery for severe regurgitation induced by pacemaker leads. From the operative findings, we identified 3 patterns of tricuspid valve and pacemaker lead involvement. In 3 patients, the leads were caught in the chordae, in 2 patients, tricuspid regurgitation was caused by lead impingement on the septal leaflet, and in 3 patients, tricuspid valve leaflets had been perforated by the pacemaker leads. During surgery, all leads were left in situ after being separated from the leaflet or valvular apparatus. In addition, suture annuloplasty was performed for annular dilatation in all cases. In one patient, the lead was reaffixed to the annulus after the posterior leaflet was cut back towards the annulus, and the leaflet was then closed. There was one hospital death due to sepsis. The degree of tricuspid regurgitation was trivial in all surviving patients at discharge. During a mean follow-up of 21 months, one patient died from pneumonia 20 months after tricuspid valve repair. In patients undergoing tricuspid valve surgery due to severe tricuspid regurgitation caused by pacemaker leads, the leads can be left in situ after proper repair with annuloplasty. © The Author(s) 2016.

Correlation between impurities, defects and cell performance in semicrystalline silicon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doolittle, W.A.; Rohatgi, A.

1990-01-01

This paper reports that an in-depth analysis of Solarex CDS semicrystalline silicon has been performed and correlations between the efficiency and impurities, and defects present in the material have been made. Comparisons were made between cell performance and variations in interstitial oxygen, substitutional carbon, grain size, etch pit density, and trap location as a function of position in the ingot. The oxygen concentration was found to decrease with increasing distance from the bottom of the ingot while the carbon concentration as well as average grain size was found to increase. The best cell performance was obtained on wafers with minimum oxygen and maximum carbon (top). No correlation was found between etch pit density and cell performance. DLTS and JVT measurements revealed that samples with higher oxygen content (bottom) gave lower cell performance due to a large number of distributed states, possibly due to extended defects like oxygen precipitates. Low oxygen samples (top) showed predominately discrete states, improved cell performance and a doping dependent average trap density

The Concept of ‘Due Performance’ (solutio of Civil Obligations in Classic Roman Law: Content and Scope

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paula Natalia Robles Bacca

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article displays a chronological journey of some of the sources of Roman Law that allows us to establish the concept of the “due performance” in Rome. To this extent, we proceed to a reflection of the modifications and adjustments occurred regarding the concept of solutio, during archaic and classical Roman law. Therefore, we will focus on the exegetical study of some other Roman sources, which contains references to solutio, solvere and satisfactio, in order to establish through this path, the structural antecedent of the current notion of “due performance of obligations”.

Rb-129Xe spin-exchange rates due to binary and three-body collisions at high Xe pressures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cates, G.D.; Fitzgerald, R.J.; Barton, A.S.; Bogorad, P.; Gatzke, M.; Newbury, N.R.; Saam, B.

1992-01-01

We have studied the spin relaxation of 129 Xe nuclei due to collisions with Rb atoms at Xe pressures of 245--1817 Torr. Our results can be characterized by two parameters, the Rb- 129 Xe velocity-averaged binary spin-exchange cross section left-angle σv right-angle and a rate γ M that characterizes spin relaxation due to van der Waals molecules. Our results complement earlier studies performed at Xe pressures of about 1 Torr and N 2 pressures of 10--100 Torr. This work is useful for predicting spin-exchange rates between polarized Rb atoms and 129 Xe nuclei

Procedural Due Process Rights in Student Discipline.

Science.gov (United States)

Pressman, Robert; Weinstein, Susan

To assist administrators in understanding procedural due process rights in student discipline, this manual draws together hundreds of citations and case summaries of federal and state court decisions and provides detailed commentary as well. Chapter 1 outlines the general principles of procedural due process rights in student discipline, such as…

Cardiogenic shock due to coronary artery disease associated with interrupted aortic arch

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luís Alberto Oliveira Dallan

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Acute pulmonary edema is a serious event. Its occurrence in association with interrupted aortic arch and coronary heart disease is rare. Recently, an old patient developed cardiogenic shock and acute pulmonary edema due to acute coronary insufficiency, associated with interrupted aortic arch. The coronary angiography revealed occlusion of the right coronary artery and 95% obstruction in the left main coronary artery, associated with interruption of the descending aorta. Coronary artery bypass graft was performed, without extracorporeal circulation, to the anterior descending coronary artery. We discuss the initial management, given the seriousness of the case.

Conus medullaris syndrome due to an intradural disc herniation: A case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chaudhary Kshitij

2008-01-01

Full Text Available A 70-year-old male patient developed acute paraplegia due to conus medullaris compression secondary to extrusion of D12-L1 disc. After negative epidural examination intraoperatively, a durotomy was performed and an intradural disc fragment was excised. Patient did not regain ambulatory status at two-year follow-up. Intraoperative finding of negative extradural compression, tense swollen dura and CSF leak from ventral dura should alert the surgeon for the possibility of intradural disc herniation. A routine preoperative MRI is misleading and a high index of suspicion helps to avoid a missed diagnosis.

Computed chest tomography in rats with pulmonary damage due to microembolism

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wegener, T.; Wegenius, G.; Hemmingsson, A.; Jung, B.; Saldeen, T.

Computed chest tomography was performed in 13 rats with pulmonary damage due to microembolism, caused by injection of thrombin (500 NIH/kg body weight) and tranexamic acid, a fibrinolytic inhibitor (200 mg/kg body weight), and in 9 control rats. The purpose of the investigation was to perform attenuation measurements at two levels of the right lung, each with three regions of interest (anterior, mid and posterior). Alterations in attenuation, compared with controls, were correlated with lung weight. Compared with controls, the attenuation was significantly increased in the anterior and posterior regions at both levels in animals with pulmonary damage, but not in the mid regions. There was a statistically significant correlation between increasing attenuation and increasing lung weight. A significant difference was found between damaged and control lungs regarding the microscopic grade of interstitial oedema, alveolar oedema and fibrin. Histograms of attenuation values in computed tomograms might be of value in detecting alveolar oedema. It is concluded that computed chest tomography is a good method for detection pulmonary oedema at an early stage of experimental microembolism in the rat.

Computed chest tomography in rats with pulmonary damage due to microembolism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wegener, T.; Wegenius, G.; Hemmingsson, A.; Jung, B.; Saldeen, T.; Uppsala Univ.; Uppsala Univ.; Uppsala Univ.

1986-01-01

Computed chest tomography was performed in 13 rats with pulmonary damage due to microembolism, caused by injection of thrombin (500 NIH/kg body weight) and tranexamic acid, a fibrinolytic inhibitor (200 mg/kg body weight), and in 9 control rats. The purpose of the investigation was to perform attenuation measurements at two levels of the right lung, each with three regions of interest (anterior, mid and posterior). Alterations in attenuation, compared with controls, were correlated with lung weight. Compared with controls, the attenuation was significantly increased in the anterior and posterior regions at both levels in animals with pulmonary damage, but not in the mid regions. There was a statistically significant correlation between increasing attenuation and increasing lung weight. A significant difference was found between damaged and control lungs regarding the microscopic grade of interstitial oedema, alveolar oedema and fibrin. Histograms of attenuation values in computed tomograms might be of value in detecting alveolar oedema. It is concluded that computed chest tomography is a good method for detection pulmonary oedema at an early stage of experimental microembolism in the rat. (orig.)

Comparison of Biocorrosion due to Desulfovibrio desulfuricans and Desulfotomaculum nigrificans Bacteria

Science.gov (United States)

Lata, Suman; Sharma, Chhaya; Singh, Ajay K.

2013-02-01

One observes several species of sulfate-reducing bacteria in nature. Presence of these species in a media may cause microbial influenced corrosion (MIC) of materials differently. To investigate this aspect of MIC, corrosion tests were performed on three types of stainless steels. The tests were done in modified Baar's media inoculated separately by the two species of SRB namely Desulfovibrio desulfuricans (DD) and Desulfotomaculum nigrificans (DN). Electrochemical and immersion tests were performed to assess the extent of uniform and localized corrosion of these steels. Biofilms formed on the corroded samples were analyzed for estimating various components of its extracellular polymeric substances. Hydrogenase enzyme of these bacteria was tested to determine its nature and activity. Higher degree of corrosivity was observed in case of media inoculated with DD as compared to DN. More active nature of hydrogenase enzyme, its location in the periplasmic phase in DD and higher fraction of carbohydrate in biofilm formed due to DD have been suggested to be responsible for higher degree of corrosivity caused by them.

Prediction of residual stress distributions due to surface machining and welding and crack growth simulation under residual stress distribution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ihara, Ryohei; Katsuyama, JInya; Onizawa, Kunio; Hashimoto, Tadafumi; Mikami, Yoshiki; Mochizuki, Masahito

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → Residual stress distributions due to welding and machining are evaluated by XRD and FEM. → Residual stress due to machining shows higher tensile stress than welding near the surface. → Crack growth analysis is performed using calculated residual stress. → Crack growth result is affected machining rather than welding. → Machining is an important factor for crack growth. - Abstract: In nuclear power plants, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) has been observed near the weld zone of the core shroud and primary loop recirculation (PLR) pipes made of low-carbon austenitic stainless steel Type 316L. The joining process of pipes usually includes surface machining and welding. Both processes induce residual stresses, and residual stresses are thus important factors in the occurrence and propagation of SCC. In this study, the finite element method (FEM) was used to estimate residual stress distributions generated by butt welding and surface machining. The thermoelastic-plastic analysis was performed for the welding simulation, and the thermo-mechanical coupled analysis based on the Johnson-Cook material model was performed for the surface machining simulation. In addition, a crack growth analysis based on the stress intensity factor (SIF) calculation was performed using the calculated residual stress distributions that are generated by welding and surface machining. The surface machining analysis showed that tensile residual stress due to surface machining only exists approximately 0.2 mm from the machined surface, and the surface residual stress increases with cutting speed. The crack growth analysis showed that the crack depth is affected by both surface machining and welding, and the crack length is more affected by surface machining than by welding.

Evaluating the effect of marketing performance on financial performance of Parsian bank

OpenAIRE

Meisam Shirkhodaei; Mansoreh Aligholi; Soheil Askari

2014-01-01

Marketing performance measurement has been converted to the major priority in the field of marketing, due to the responsibility to competitive increasing pressures, and financial limitations of organizations. Review of earlier researches, indicates that rarely maintenance of account leads to damaging to the credibility of marketing, compromising marketing statue and even threatening the marketing existence as a separated strength within the company. Inability of marketers to determine the...

Irrigation performance assessment in Crimea, Ukraine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pavlov, S.S.; Roerink, G.J.; Hellegers, P.J.G.J.; Popovych, V.F.

2006-01-01

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the performance of irrigated agriculture decreased drastically in Ukraine, due to problems related to the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. Before formulating recommendations on required actions to modify this problematic

Prostate Artery Embolization for Complete Urinary Outflow Obstruction Due to Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Simon Chun Ho, E-mail: simonyu@cuhk.edu.hk; Cho, Carmen Chi Min; Hung, Esther Hiu Yee [The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology (Hong Kong); Chiu, Peter Ka Fung; Yee, Chi Hang; Ng, Chi Fai [The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Surgery, Prince of Wales Hospital (Hong Kong)

2017-01-15

BackgroundWe aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of PAE in weaning of catheter and relieving obstructive urinary symptoms in patients with acute urinary retention (AUR) due to benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and failed trial without catheter (TWOC).Materials and MethodsIn this prospective study approved by the institutional review board, a signed informed consent was obtained. Eighteen consecutive patients with AUR due to BPH and failed TWOC were recruited. Nineteen consecutive patients with BPH but without AUR were recruited as a control. Patients with CTA evidence of arterial occlusion or significant stenosis along the prostate artery access path were excluded. PAE was performed using microspheres (100–300 μm diameter). Outcome assessment included successful weaning of catheter in 2 weeks, procedure-related complications, change of symptomatology and urodynamic findings at 1 month as compared to baseline, percent non-perfused prostate volume, and prostate volume reduction on MRI at 2 weeks.ResultsTwo patients in the study group and four in the control group were excluded due to arterial pathology. Embolization of bilateral prostate arteries was achieved in all patients in both the groups (100%). There was no complication. The catheter was successfully weaned in 87.5% (14/16) of patients within 14 days in the treatment group. There was no significant difference in patient demographics, prostate characteristics, and all outcome assessment parameters between both the groups.ConclusionsPAE was probably safe and effective in weaning of catheter and relieving obstructive urinary symptoms in patients due to BPH, with treatment outcomes comparable to those without AUR.

Prostate Artery Embolization for Complete Urinary Outflow Obstruction Due to Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Simon Chun Ho; Cho, Carmen Chi Min; Hung, Esther Hiu Yee; Chiu, Peter Ka Fung; Yee, Chi Hang; Ng, Chi Fai

2017-01-01

BackgroundWe aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of PAE in weaning of catheter and relieving obstructive urinary symptoms in patients with acute urinary retention (AUR) due to benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and failed trial without catheter (TWOC).Materials and MethodsIn this prospective study approved by the institutional review board, a signed informed consent was obtained. Eighteen consecutive patients with AUR due to BPH and failed TWOC were recruited. Nineteen consecutive patients with BPH but without AUR were recruited as a control. Patients with CTA evidence of arterial occlusion or significant stenosis along the prostate artery access path were excluded. PAE was performed using microspheres (100–300 μm diameter). Outcome assessment included successful weaning of catheter in 2 weeks, procedure-related complications, change of symptomatology and urodynamic findings at 1 month as compared to baseline, percent non-perfused prostate volume, and prostate volume reduction on MRI at 2 weeks.ResultsTwo patients in the study group and four in the control group were excluded due to arterial pathology. Embolization of bilateral prostate arteries was achieved in all patients in both the groups (100%). There was no complication. The catheter was successfully weaned in 87.5% (14/16) of patients within 14 days in the treatment group. There was no significant difference in patient demographics, prostate characteristics, and all outcome assessment parameters between both the groups.ConclusionsPAE was probably safe and effective in weaning of catheter and relieving obstructive urinary symptoms in patients due to BPH, with treatment outcomes comparable to those without AUR.

Growth performance of broilers in experimental Reovirus infections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sudhakar P. Awandkar

Full Text Available Background: The avian reoviruses have emerged to induce various manifestations in chickens. They are associated with disease conditions including malabsorption syndrome, tenosynovitis etc. Reoviruses are an important cause of suboptimum performance in broilers, resulting in poor growth performance. Poultry industry in India is facing a catastrophe due to such infections which go unnoticed in field due to masking of the symptoms by secondary infections and commonly observed nutritional disorders. Aim: To investigate the effect of reovirus infection on overall performance of broiler birds. Material and Methods: The broiler birds were challenged with homologous strains of malabsorption syndrome and tenosynovitis syndrome of reovirus. The growth performance was recorded. Results and conclusion: The growth performance and immune response to NDV did not differ in the birds challenged with tenosynovitis syndrome strain of reo virus as compared to un challenged birds. However, poor live body weight, feed intake, FCR, PE and BPEI and better serum NDV titres were found in chicks challenged with malabsorption syndrome strain of reovirus as compared to the chicks from control group. [Vet World 2012; 5(11.000: 685-689

Grading the performance of clinical skills: lessons to be learned from the performing arts.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Deborah

2011-08-01

The drift towards competency based nurse interventions has seen a growth in concern regarding the most appropriate methods of assessment of such competencies. Nurse educators and practitioners alike are struggling with the concept of measuring the performance of nursing skills; due to an uneasy relationship between competence, capability, intuition and expertise. Different currencies of value may be ascribed to the assessment of nursing practice, resulting in the use of subjective judgements together with the development of assessment criteria which have different weightings, depending on the values of the assessor. Within the performing arts, students' practice performance is also assessed, with seemingly many similarities between applying value to performance in dance or theatre and nursing. Within performing arts assessment a balancing act is also being played out between academic education and professional training (where complex performances are notoriously hard to evaluate). This paper explores the nature of assessment within the performing arts and makes suggestions regarding their application within the context of nurse education. If nursing is indeed a blend of art and science, then it seems sensible to look to the performing arts to see if lessons could be learned. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Numerical study of the enhancement of combustion performance in a scramjet combustor due to injection of electric-discharge-activated oxygen molecules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Starik, A M; Bezgin, L V; Kopchenov, V I; Loukhovitski, B I; Sharipov, A S; Titova, N S

2013-01-01

A comprehensive analysis of the efficiency of an approach based on the injection of a thin oxygen stream, subjected to a tailored electric discharge, into a supersonic H 2 –air flow to enhance the combustion performance in the mixing layer and in the scramjet combustor is conducted. It is shown that for such an approach there exist optimal values of reduced electric field E/N and transversal dimension d of the injected oxygen stream, which provide the minimal length of induction zone in the mixing layer. The optimal values of E/N and d depend on air flow parameters and the specific energy put into the oxygen. The injection of a thin oxygen stream (d = 1 mm) subjected to an electric discharge with E/N = 50–100 Td, which produces mostly singlet oxygen O 2 (a  1 Δ g ) and O 2 (b 1 Σ g + ) molecules and atomic oxygen, allows one to arrange stable combustion in a scramjet duct at an extremely low air temperature T air  = 900 K and pressure P air  = 0.3 bar even at a small specific energy put into the oxygen E s  = 0.2 J ncm −3 , and to provide rather high combustion completeness η = 0.73. The advance in the energy released during combustion is much higher (hundred times), in this case, than the energy supplied to the oxygen stream in the electric discharge. This approach also makes it possible to ensure the rather high combustion completeness in the scramjet combustor with reduced length. The main reason for the combustion enhancement of the H 2 –air mixture in the scramjet duct is the intensification of chain-branching reactions due to the injection of a small amount of cold non-equilibrium oxygen plasma comprising highly reactive species, O 2 (a  1 Δ g ) and O 2 (b 1 Σ g + ) molecules and O atoms, into the H 2 –air supersonic flow. (paper)

Performance Comparison between Optical Fiber Type ESPI and Bulk Type ESPI for the Internal Defect in Pressure Vessel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Seong Jong; Kang, Young June; Hong, Kyung Min; Lee, Jae Hoon; Choi, Nak Jung

2012-01-01

An optical defect detection method using ESPI(electronic speckle pattern interferometry) is proposed. ESPI is widely used as a non-contact measurement system which show deformation and phase map in real time. ESPI can be divided as the in-plane, out-of-plane and shearography by operation principle and target object and also divided with bulk type and optic fiber type by the optic configurations. This paper is focused on optic fiber type out-of-plane ESPI, which has the following advantages: (1) low cost: (2) reduction of the unreliable factors generated by separated optic components: (3) simplification of the optic configuration: (4) great reduction of volume: (5) flexibility, to be easily designed into different structures to adapt to inaccessible environments such as pipeline cavity and so on

Plasma diffusion due to magnetic field fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okuda, H.; Lee, W.W.; Lin, A.T.

1979-01-01

Plasma diffusion due to magnetic field fluctuations has been studied in two dimensions for a plasma near thermal equilibrium and when the fluctuations are suprathermal. It is found that near thermal equilibrium electron diffusion varies as B -2 when the collisionless skin depth is greater than the thermal electron gyroradius and is generally smaller than the diffusion due to collisions or electrostatic fluctuations for a low-β plasma. When the suprathermal magnetic fluctuation exists because of macroscopic plasma currents, electron diffusion is enhanced due to the coalescence of current filaments and magnetic islands. Magnetic field energy is found to condense to the longest wavelength available in the system and stays there longer than the electron diffusion time scale

Performance Limits of Communication with Energy Harvesting

KAUST Repository

Znaidi, Mohamed Ridha

2016-01-01

In energy harvesting communications, the transmitters have to adapt transmission to the availability of energy harvested during communication. The performance of the transmission depends on the channel conditions which vary randomly due to mobility

Neonatal Meningoventriculitis Due to Proteus Mirabilis – A Case Report

Science.gov (United States)

Juyal, Deepak; Rathaur, Vyas Kumar; Sharma, Neelam

2013-01-01

A five day old full term born baby was admitted to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with seizures, opisthotonous posture and was icteric upto thigh. Baby had a three day history of poor feeding, lethargy and abnormal body movements. Mother was a 29 years old primigravida and had a normal vaginal delivery at home. Sepsis profile of the patient was requested, lumbar puncture and ventricular tap was performed. Patient was put on third generation cephalosporins, aminoglycosides and phenobarbitone. Culture and sensitivity report of blood, Cerebro spinal fluid and ventricular fluid showed Proteus mirabilis. Computerized Tomography scan showed a large parenchymal lesion in the right frontal lobe and diffuse ependymal enhancement along both the lateral ventricles suggestive of meningoventriculitis. We hereby present a fatal case of neonatal meningoventriculitis due to Proteus mirabilis. PMID:23543669

Women in Jordanian banks and performance: Financial accounting measurement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhannad Akram Ahmad

2016-08-01

Full Text Available This study highlights the gender diversity issues in the banking sector taking into consideration their impact on the performance measured by profitability (ROA. As the banking sector has widely been ignored from the previous studies due to their strict system, this study empirically examined the impact of the CEO gender and board with a female director on the performance of the Jordanian commercial banks in a period from 2004 to 2013. The multiple regression analysis shows that the banks with female CEOs underperform their counterparts run by male CEOs. The reason could be due to their harmonious relationships orientation; that is, women do not tend to invest in risky investments. However, female director plays insignificant roles on the performance which supports the evidence of tokenism as argued by the psychological social theory

The effect of negative performance stereotypes on learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Rydell, Robert J; Rydell, Michael T; Boucher, Kathryn L

2010-12-01

Stereotype threat (ST) research has focused exclusively on how negative group stereotypes reduce performance. The present work examines if pejorative stereotypes about women in math inhibit their ability to learn the mathematical rules and operations necessary to solve math problems. In Experiment 1, women experiencing ST had difficulty encoding math-related information into memory and, therefore, learned fewer mathematical rules and showed poorer math performance than did controls. In Experiment 2, women experiencing ST while learning modular arithmetic (MA) performed more poorly than did controls on easy MA problems; this effect was due to reduced learning of the mathematical operations underlying MA. In Experiment 3, ST reduced women's, but not men's, ability to learn abstract mathematical rules and to transfer these rules to a second, isomorphic task. This work provides the first evidence that negative stereotypes about women in math reduce their level of mathematical learning and demonstrates that reduced learning due to stereotype threat can lead to poorer performance in negatively stereotyped domains. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Radiation Dose for Self-Disposal due to the Quantity of Radioactive Waste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koo, Daeseo; Sung, Hyun-Hee; Kim, Seung-Soo; Kim, Gye-Nam; Choi, Jong-Won [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

In this study, we evaluated resident radiation dose due to cover depth on contaminated zone such as uranium contaminated soil and concrete wastes under radiation dose limit using RESRAD Version 7.0. The uranium concentration of contaminated zone due to the cover depth are also analyzed. Possibility for self-disposal of uranium contaminated soil and concrete wastes is evaluated from these calculating data. There are several radioactive material disposal methods such as regulation exemption, decontamination and long term storage. To acquire radiation dose under self-disposal from them, the study on decontamination of some uranium contaminated soil and concrete wastes was performed using electrokinectic-electrodialytic. We evaluated radiation dose due to cover depth on contaminated zone such as uranium contaminated soil and concrete wastes under radiation dose limit using RESRAD Version 7.0. As cover depth increases, the tolerable uranium concentration increases up to cover depth (1.5 m) and then it showed saturated uranium concentration above cover depth (1.5 m). Therefore, to carry out self-disposal on the quantity (1000 drums≒300,000 kg) of radioactive waste is easier than to carry out on the quantity (2000 drums≒600,000 kg) of radioactive waste owing to the large tolerable uranium concentration for self-disposal of radioactive waste. As cover depth increases, the individual radiation dose rate decreased up to cover depth (1.5 m) and then it showed saturated individual radiation dose rate above cover depth (1.5 m)

Radiation Dose for Self-Disposal due to the Quantity of Radioactive Waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koo, Daeseo; Sung, Hyun-Hee; Kim, Seung-Soo; Kim, Gye-Nam; Choi, Jong-Won

2016-01-01

In this study, we evaluated resident radiation dose due to cover depth on contaminated zone such as uranium contaminated soil and concrete wastes under radiation dose limit using RESRAD Version 7.0. The uranium concentration of contaminated zone due to the cover depth are also analyzed. Possibility for self-disposal of uranium contaminated soil and concrete wastes is evaluated from these calculating data. There are several radioactive material disposal methods such as regulation exemption, decontamination and long term storage. To acquire radiation dose under self-disposal from them, the study on decontamination of some uranium contaminated soil and concrete wastes was performed using electrokinectic-electrodialytic. We evaluated radiation dose due to cover depth on contaminated zone such as uranium contaminated soil and concrete wastes under radiation dose limit using RESRAD Version 7.0. As cover depth increases, the tolerable uranium concentration increases up to cover depth (1.5 m) and then it showed saturated uranium concentration above cover depth (1.5 m). Therefore, to carry out self-disposal on the quantity (1000 drums≒300,000 kg) of radioactive waste is easier than to carry out on the quantity (2000 drums≒600,000 kg) of radioactive waste owing to the large tolerable uranium concentration for self-disposal of radioactive waste. As cover depth increases, the individual radiation dose rate decreased up to cover depth (1.5 m) and then it showed saturated individual radiation dose rate above cover depth (1.5 m)

Isolated angioedema of the bowel due to C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency: a case report and review of literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kothari Shivangi T

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction We report a rare, classic case of isolated angioedema of the bowel due to C1-esterase inhibitor deficiency. It is a rare presentation and very few cases have been reported worldwide. Angioedema has been classified into three categories. Case presentation A 66-year-old Caucasian man presented with a ten-month history of episodic severe cramping abdominal pain, associated with loose stools. A colonoscopy performed during an acute attack revealed nonspecific colitis. Computed tomography of the abdomen performed at the same time showed a thickened small bowel and ascending colon with a moderate amount of free fluid in the abdomen. Levels of C4 ( Conclusion In addition to a detailed comprehensive medical history, laboratory data and imaging studies are required to confirm a diagnosis of angioedema due to C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency.

Aerodynamic characteristics and heat radiation performance of sportswear fabrics

Science.gov (United States)

Koga, H.; Hiratsuka, M.; Ito, S.; Konno, A.

2017-10-01

Sports such as swimming, speed skating, and marathon are sports competing for time. In recent years, reduction of the fluid drag of sportswear is required for these competitions in order to improve the record. In addition, sweating and discomfort due to body temperature rise during competition are thought to affect competitor performance, and heat radiation performance is also an important factor for sportswear. The authors have measured fluid force drag by wrapping cloth around a cylinder and have confirmed their differences due to the roughness of the fabric surface, differences in sewing. The authors could be verified the drag can be reduced by the position of the wear stitch. This time, we measured the heat radiation performance of 14 types of cloths whose aero dynamic properties are known using cylinders which are regarded as human fuselages, and found elements of cloth with heat radiation performance. It was found to be important for raising the heat radiation performance of sportswear that the fabric is thin and flat surface processing.

Frictional behaviour of high performance fibrous tows: Friction experiments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cornelissen, Bo; Rietman, Bert; Akkerman, Remko

2013-01-01

Tow friction is an important mechanism in the production and processing of high performance fibrous tows. The frictional behaviour of these tows is anisotropic due to the texture of the filaments as well as the tows. This work describes capstan experiments that were performed to measure the

Mobile phone applications in management of enuresis: The good, the bad, and the unreliable!

Science.gov (United States)

Myint, Michael; Adam, Ahmed; Herath, Sampath; Smith, Grahame

2016-04-01

ratings consistently had engaging interfaces, were easy to use, and defined the primary purpose clearly. Lower ratings and performance often was caused by poor quality of experience through "freezing"/"crashing." Bladder diary apps can eliminate disadvantages of pen-and-paper diaries in the management of enuresis. Currently, apps available vary in quality. The three best-rated apps currently available are My Dryness Tracker, Bedwetting Tracker, and HapPee Time. There is room for medical associations to collaborate with developers for further app development. Copyright © 2015 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Implications of clinical trial design on sample size requirements.

Science.gov (United States)

Leon, Andrew C

2008-07-01

The primary goal in designing a randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) is to minimize bias in the estimate of treatment effect. Randomized group assignment, double-blinded assessments, and control or comparison groups reduce the risk of bias. The design must also provide sufficient statistical power to detect a clinically meaningful treatment effect and maintain a nominal level of type I error. An attempt to integrate neurocognitive science into an RCT poses additional challenges. Two particularly relevant aspects of such a design often receive insufficient attention in an RCT. Multiple outcomes inflate type I error, and an unreliable assessment process introduces bias and reduces statistical power. Here we describe how both unreliability and multiple outcomes can increase the study costs and duration and reduce the feasibility of the study. The objective of this article is to consider strategies that overcome the problems of unreliability and multiplicity.

Factors associated with the impossibility to obtain reliable liver stiffness measurements by means of Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) elastography—Analysis of a cohort of 1031 subjects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bota, Simona, E-mail: bota_simona1982@yahoo.com; Sporea, Ioan, E-mail: isporea@umft.ro; Sirli, Roxana, E-mail: roxanasirli@gmail.com; Popescu, Alina, E-mail: alinamircea.popescu@gmail.com; Danila, Mirela, E-mail: mireladanila@gmail.com; Jurchis, Ana, E-mail: ana.jurchis@yahoo.com; Gradinaru-Tascau, Oana, E-mail: bluonmyown@yahoo.com

2014-02-15

Introduction: Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) elastography is a non-invasive technique for liver fibrosis assessment. Aim: To assess the feasibility of ARFI elastography in a large cohort of subjects and to identify factors associated with impossibility to obtain reliable liver stiffness (LS) measurements by means of this technique. Methods: Our retrospective study included 1031 adult subjects with or without chronic liver disease. In each subject LS was assessed by means of ARFI elastography. Failure of ARFI measurements was defined if no valid measurement was obtained after at least 10 shots and unreliable in the following situations: fewer than 10 valid shots; or median value of 10 valid measurements with a success rate (SR) < 60% and/or an interquartile range interval (IQR) ≥ 30%. Results: Failure of LS measurements by means of ARFI was observed in 4 subjects (0.3%), unreliable measurements in 66 subjects (6.4%), so reliable measurements were obtained in 961 subjects (93.3%). In univariant analysis, the following risk factors were associated with failed and unreliable measurements: age over 58 years (OR = 0.49; 95% CI 0.30–0.80, p = 0.005), male gender (OR = 0.58; 95% CI 0.34–0.94, p = 0.04), BMI > 27.7 kg/m{sup 2} (OR = 0.23, 95% CI 0.13–0.41, p < 0.0001). In multivariate analysis all the factors mentioned above were independently associated with the risk of failed and unreliable measurements. Conclusions: Reliable LS measurements by means of ARFI elastography were obtained in 93.3% of cases. Older age, higher BMI and male gender were associated with the risk of failed and unreliable measurements, but their influence is limited as compared with Transient Elastography.

Greenhouse effect due to atmospheric nitrous oxide

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Yung, Y. L.; Wang, W. C.; Lacis, A. A.

1976-01-01

The greenhouse effect due to nitrous oxide in the present atmosphere is about 0.8 K. Increase in atmospheric N2O due to perturbation of the nitrogen cycle by man may lead to an increase in surface temperature as large as 0.5 K by 2025, or 1.0 K by 2100. Other climatic effects of N2O are briefly discussed.

Extraordinary improvement of gas-sensing performances in SnO2 nanofibers due to creation of local p-n heterojunctions by loading reduced graphene oxide nanosheets.

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Lee, Jae-Hyoung; Katoch, Akash; Choi, Sun-Woo; Kim, Jae-Hun; Kim, Hyoun Woo; Kim, Sang Sub

2015-02-11

We propose a novel approach to improve the gas-sensing properties of n-type nanofibers (NFs) that involves creation of local p-n heterojunctions with p-type reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets (NSs). This work investigates the sensing behaviors of n-SnO2 NFs loaded with p-RGO NSs as a model system. n-SnO2 NFs demonstrated greatly improved gas-sensing performances when loaded with an optimized amount of p-RGO NSs. Loading an optimized amount of RGOs resulted in a 20-fold higher sensor response than that of pristine SnO2 NFs. The sensing mechanism of monolithic SnO2 NFs is based on the joint effects of modulation of the potential barrier at nanograin boundaries and radial modulation of the electron-depletion layer. In addition to the sensing mechanisms described above, enhanced sensing was obtained for p-RGO NS-loaded SnO2 NFs due to creation of local p-n heterojunctions, which not only provided a potential barrier, but also functioned as a local electron absorption reservoir. These mechanisms markedly increased the resistance of SnO2 NFs, and were the origin of intensified resistance modulation during interaction of analyte gases with preadsorbed oxygen species or with the surfaces and grain boundaries of NFs. The approach used in this work can be used to fabricate sensitive gas sensors based on n-type NFs.

Quantal and thermal dampings of the hot giant dipole resonance due to complex configuration mixing

CERN Document Server

Dang, N D; Arima, A

1999-01-01

An approach is presented to study the width of the giant dipole resonance (GDR) at non-zero temperature T, which includes all forward-going processes up to two-phonon ones. Calculations are performed in sup 1 sup 2 sup 0 Sn and sup 2 sup 0 sup 8 Pb. An overall agreement between theory and experiment is found. The total width of the GDR due to coupling of the GDR phonon to all ph, pp and hh configurations increases sharply as T increases up to T approx 3 MeV and saturates at T approx 4-6 MeV. The quantal width GAMMA sub Q due to coupling to ph configurations decreases with increasing T. It is almost independent of T if the contribution of two-phonon processes at T not =0 is omitted.

[Epidemiology of maxillofacial fractures due to traffic accidents in Medellin (Colombia)].

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Agudelo-Suárez, Andrés A; Duque-Serna, Francisco Levi; Restrepo-Molina, Lucas; Martínez-Herrera, Eliana

2015-09-01

To characterize maxillofacial fractures due to traffic accidents in patients attending the Hospital Universitario San Vicente Fundación (Medellin-Colombia) from 1998 to 2010. A descriptive study (n =1609) was carried out with information from the medical records of patients meeting the inclusion criteria established by the general objective of the study. The variables consisted of sex, age, year, type and number of fractures, and type of vehicle. A descriptive analysis of the variables was performed and the frequency of fractures due to traffic accidents was calculated according to year and sex. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) were estimated to establish associations among age, type of vehicle, and the presence of two or more fractures with stratification by sex. The frequency of maxillofacial fractures due to traffic accidents increased in 2007 (men: n=198, women: n=35) and decreased from 2008 to 2010 in both sexes. Fractures were more frequent in persons aged <35 years (80%) and in men (82%). The highest frequency of fractures was observed in motorists. Male users of motorcycles (aOR=1.41; confidence interval 95% [95%CI]: 1.02- 1.94) and bicycles (aOR=1.61; 95%CI: 1.01- 2.56) were more likely to report two or more fractures compared with pedestrians, after adjustment for other variables. Most maxillofacial fractures occurred in men and in motorists. Future studies should analyze other determinants affecting the epidemiology of maxillofacial fractures. Strategies should be designed to improve the use of protective elements and drivers' knowledge and practices. Copyright © 2014 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Donor deferral due to anemia: A tertiary care center-based study

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Bahadur Shalini

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Background: The minimum hemoglobin cutoff for blood donation in India is 12.5 gm% for both male and female donors and the minimum donation interval is 3 months. Donation of one unit of blood results in decrease in hemoglobin by 1 gm% and loss of 200-250 mg of iron. Donor deferral due to anemia is one of the major reasons of temporary rejection of blood donors. In the absence of further workup or advise, it results in loss of valuable donor base. Aim and Objective: To provide baseline information regarding the prevalence and spectrum of anemia in prospective blood donors to help plan a future strategy for donor management. Materials and Methods: Hemoglobin testing of donors was performed using Hemocue and Copper sulfate specific gravity method. Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid sample of all the donors who failed either or both the screening tests was tested on automated analyzer for evaluation of hemoglobin and red blood cell indices. Results: Of all the donors, 15.5% were deferred due to anemia. Prevalence of anemia in prospective blood donors was 1.8%. It was significantly higher in female donors compared with male donors (34.2% vs 1.2%. The most common type of anemia was normocytic normochromic.

Laryngeal fracture due to blunt trauma presenting with pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum.

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Narcı, Adnan; Embleton, Didem Baskın; Ayçiçek, Abdullah; Yücedağ, Fatih; Cetinkurşun, Salih

2011-01-01

Injuries due to traffic accidents are frequent in childhood, and they have high mortality and morbidity. Laryngeal injury due to a traffic accident is a rare pathology and might be missed if not suspected. Here we present a laryngeal fracture in a child after a blunt chest trauma during a traffic accident that presented with pneumomediastinum and pneumothorax. A 14-year-old girl was referred for pneumomediastinum. Her physical examination was normal except subcutaneous emphysema, edema and tenderness in the cervical area, hoarseness, facial and extremity abrasions and ecchymoses. Chest tomography revealed pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum, and cranial tomography revealed maxillofacial fractures. Upper airway damage was suspected, flexible endoscopy revealed right vocal cord paralysis and cervical tomography revealed thyroid cartilage fracture. The fracture was repaired and tracheotomy was performed. She was discharged on postoperative day 6. Facial fractures were repaired in another center. Tracheotomy was removed on postoperative day 20. Her hoarseness, although decreased, still persists. Pneumomediastinum is a rare result of a laryngeal fracture and if not suspected, the fracture can easily be missed. It should be kept in mind after blunt cervical trauma with pneumomediastinum and/or pneumothorax. Direct endoscopy and cervical tomography may be necessary for the differential diagnosis. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Algal Meningoencephalitis due to Prototheca spp. in a Dog

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Alexandre Le Roux

2013-01-01

Full Text Available A 6-year-old Boxer was examined because of progressive neurologic signs, with severe hindlimb ataxia and head tilt on presentation. There was no history of diarrhea or vomiting. MRI of the brain revealed multifocal ill-defined T1-enhancing lesions affecting the cerebrum, brainstem, and cervical meninges, without associated mass effect. Meningoencephalitis was considered the most likely diagnosis. Multiple algae were observed on the cytology of the CSF and were most consistent with Prototheca spp. Antiprotozoal treatment was denied by the owners, and 5 weeks after diagnosis, the dog was euthanized due to progression of the neurologic deficits, and a necropsy was performed. Histological changes in the brain were compatible with severe multifocal protothecal meningoencephalitis. The specific Prototheca species was not identified. The gastrointestinal tract was unremarkable on histology. According to this report, Prototheca spp. should be included in the differentials for neurological deficits even in the absence of gastrointestinal signs.