bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Research on Network Map Service Based Upon Google Map
Authors: Meng Bao , Ping Liu Zhi
Published: March 2012

Google map is a component for network map service developed by google company. It provides and discloses numerous API aimed at processing map operation. Based on the research of this technology, the article further explores and studies more service that it offers to various fields on the Internet and meanwhile displays the application of network map service by implementing a simple travelling navigation chart.
Study of Micro Vibration Detection Based on the Tunneling Effect
Authors: Mengchao Li , Zhonghai He
Published: March 2012

Scanning tunneling microscopy is easily affected by the external micro vibration. The influence of vibration has already become one of main obstacles to improve the nano measurement accuracy. The technique of anti-vibration, vibration isolation and vibration compensation turns into a new branch in nano measurement field. In order to reduce the influence of micro random vibration, it is necessary to measure the external vibration to compensate the experiment result of scanning tunneling microscoy. So the experimental device is developed and experiment of vibration detection is made. The experiment results show that results have high sensitivity, good frequency characteristic and the same vibratory response characteristic consistent with scanning tunneling microscopy.
Analysis on the Training Models of Professional Abilities of Newly Employed Teachers of Higher Vocational Colleges Based on the PDCA Cycle
Authors: Meilan Jin
Published: March 2012

The teachers, who are newly employed by higher vocational colleges, are a preparation force for these schools to attain developments and expansions in the future, and also are a main force to train the high quality application-oriented talents. In this paper, the author makes the need plan through the analysis on the characteristics of newly-employed teachers and talent cultivation of higher vocational colleges, and then puts forward the training models of professional skills of the new-employed teachers of higher vocational colleges based on the PDCA cycle.
Design and Simulation of a Generator Model with Magnetic Energy Circulation Increase
Authors: Zhou Pei-Juan , Zhou Zhi-Ping , Fan Jing
Published: March 2012

Based on the research of the phenomenon, which magnetized soft magnetic material's energy is increase and remanence appears after degaussing, put forward 1Âœthe non-equilibrium effect technology1Â. A generator model with magnetic energy circulation increase has been designed using 1Âœthe non-equilibrium effect technology1Â. The generator model has been simulated and analyzed using Ansoft 12 and MATLAB, results proved that the new type of generator can offset anti-magnetic moment completely, and additional magnetic energy conversion efficiency ratio is greater than 1.
College English Education Calls for Assistance of Computer Technology
Authors: Fengrong Li , Liwe Ma
Published: March 2012

The importance of technology's application to English education has been paid more and more attention by English educators and other scholars. By analyzing the essence of education and a brief review of general education in China and America, the paper here points out a calling for the nurture of the students in education and the coming back of general education to colleges. At present college English education has not effectively taken the advantages that computer technology can provide for a more efficient and effective one. The conclusion of the paper is clear: modern technology should be applied scientifically and reasonably to college English education to help cultivating high quality college graduates and fulfilling the mission of college education.
The Game Analysis of Corporation Financing Structure
Authors: hongzhu Liu , Pan heping , gxiaowo Tan
Published: March 2012

This paper reviews the development and kinds of financing system. by financing goal preferences, time preferences and financing system stability as three variables respectively, establishes financing game model.get through analysis the solution of financing game model,gives some valuable results about financing structure.moreover,the paper research finance problem use game theory,not only a big innovate of finance's study method,but also a big boost of finance game theory.
Research on Bonding Technology Parameter Optimize of NiPdAu PCB Based on MINITAB
Authors: Yu Jinwei
Published: March 2012

In order to improving reliability and economy of down-lead bonding of MEMS packaging , NiPdAu PCB is leaded in ,because palladium is joined in protecting involucra , bonding technology parameter must change . In this paper, robust parameter design method of MINITAB software is used and optimize bonding technology parameter of new type NiPdAu involucra has been discovered , according to optimize results , mending bonding technology parameter and Ni Pd Au PCB is triumphantly used into MEMS packaging technology , not only increasing reliability of products , but also reducing cost of raw materials and obtaining well economy benefit.
Vibration Analysis of the Seated Human Body in Vertical Direction
Authors: Eskrouchi A. R. , Ghafari A. Selk
Published: March 2012

The main scope of this research is to study the effects of vibration on the seated human body in vertical direction. In this study, a series/parallel 4-degree-of-freedom lumped parameter model consisting of head/neck, upper torso, viscera, and lower torso is employed for this purpose. Transmissibility analysis was performed to study the biomechanical behaviour of the internal organs in response to the shock loads. Simulation study clearly illustrates the degree of intensity of the vibrational effects transmitted from various internal organs to head/neck system. Furthermore, the problem under investigation reveals the irreparable effects of the force transmitted by internal organs during accidents.
Evaluating Tax Affairs Office Performance by Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
Authors: Nazemosadat S. A. , Ghezavati H. R. , Yegane M. , Manteqi N.
Published: March 2012

Tax Affair Organization as a part of the government should be able to be a part of economic justice development and increase the government sustainable incomes by tax collecting from significant economic sectors along with shareholders veneration.In this article the strategies were derived from Iran National Tax Affairs (ITNA) operational program in 2008 and ITNA strategic program. The main strategies were derived with experts' cooperation. The operational objectives and 48 measures related to each operational objective were distinguished. Based on these, the balanced scorecard and questionnaire were designed. The reliability of research tools shows 1 coefficient for each questionnaire is higher than 75%.The data analysis is applied on two levels of descriptive and referential statistics. Research findings show that the general tax affairs organization performance is up to 99% consistent with balanced scorecard. In addition, the performance from the financial, customers and internal processes views are consistent with balanced scorecard. However, the performance is not consistent with the balanced scorecard from development and leaning aspects.
A Framework for Model Checking Web Service Choreography Based on CWB
Authors: Beggar Mohammed Lamine , Lejian Liao
Published: March 2012

Web services are software applications which can be used through a network (intranet or Internet) via the exchange of messages based on XML standards. They are aimed at wild reusability and are typically designed to interact with other in order to build larger applications. Web service sometimes requires combining more than one to meet our requirements. Service composition is the process of creating new services from a set of services. In this context, one of the important investigations is the choreography compatibility analysis. We mean by the choreography compatibility the capability of a set of Web services of actually interacting by exchanging messages in a proper manner. Whether a set of services are compatible depends not only on their sequences of messages but also on quantitative properties such as timed properties. In this paper, we present a Framework for Model Checking Web Service choreography based on CWB in which the Web services support synchronous or asynchronous timed communications. Particularly, in this paper we present a new modeling of Web services using Temporal Calculus of Communicating Systems (TCCS).
A Source Code and Non-Source Code Plagiarism Detection Research for C Program
Authors: Zhong Mei , Li Yanchen , Liu Dongsheng
Published: March 2012

This paper mainly studies the plagiarism detection methods of program code based on source code and non-source code. This paper proposes a plagiarism detection method for C program based on XML from the source code, and proposes a plagiarism detection method for C program based on suffix tree from the non-source code. With 12 kinds of means of plagiarism as the principles of classification, testing the two kinds of detection methods use simple data structure; with struct, pointer, array, and function call as the principles of classification, testing the two kinds of detection methods use complex data structure. Finally, this paper summarizes the superiority of the two kinds of detection methods.
Solving Freight Agency Problem Using Intranet VPN and Site-To-Site VPN
Authors: Alhadidi Basim , Baniata Laith , Baniata Mohammad , Al-Ali Muath , Althwaini Sulayman
Published: March 2012

This paper emphasizes the need for communication required by a large firm that has both a large distribution center and a large number of haulage vehicles. This firm is a Freight agency which faced many obstacles during their works. These obstacles in turn are summarized in how this firm contacts with their vehicles and how the firm controls the humidity and temperature of each warehouse properly. These warehouses hold valuable shipments to the costumers. The proposed solution is to use a technology which provides a secure connection, saves time and increases efficiency. The best option, accordingly, is Virtual Private Network and Global Position System to determine the location of each vehicle. By such a solution, it is really noticeable that there is effective communication in the firm's hard mechanism on the one hand and the employees save time and efforts as well as increase the profits of the company and reduce long distance and support calls on the other hand.
PNST: A Peer-To-Peer Network Storage Technology Based on IPv6 Protocol
Authors: Wang Xiaohua , Mu Aiqin , Zhu Shisong
Published: March 2012

There are many net-disk spaces offered by portal websites in internet. The key problem is how to organize these spaces, provide a large capacity and credible data storage services. This paper presents a idea about distributed virtual storage on P2P network based on IPv6 protocol, and the algorithms of data storing, dividing, retrieving and combining are analyzed explicitly. Some key problems of system such as location services failure treatment, the contents of group identification information, and file segmentation are discussed in this paper.
Study on Data Pre-Processing in Web Mining Based E-Commerce Recommendation Systems
Authors: Ya Luo
Published: March 2012

This paper introduces the content of data-preprocessing in e-commerce recommendation systems based on Web data mining. By the analysis of pre-processing data used by Web, data of Web content and data of Web structure, studies are carried out on the implementation of five processes in data pre-processing, including data preparation, data screening, user identification, session identification and path supplement.
Automatic Emotion Recognition in Speech Signal Using Teager Energy Operator and MFCC Features
Authors: He Ling , Lech Margaret , Allen Nicholas
Published: March 2012

A new approach to feature extraction for the automatic emotion classification in speech signals was described and tested in this work. The method was based on the Teager energy operator combined with mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (TEO-MFCC). The proposed TEO-MFCC method was tested using speech recordings collected from the Speech Under Simulated and Actual Stress (SUSAS) database with three simulated emotions (angry, neutral and soft). The Gaussian mixture model (GMM) was used as classifier. The average classification accuracy for three emotions reached up to 73%, much higher than purely guess (33% for three emotions). Especially, the system showed good performance on the classification of emotion 1Âœangry1Â. The correct recognition rate for emotion 1Âœangry1Â was 83%, while it was only 59% for emotion 1Âœneutral1Â and 77% for emotion 1Âœsoft1Â.
Industrial CO2 Reduction: Environmental View
Authors: Navthar R. R. , Kotakar S. G.
Published: March 2012

Several techniques have been proposed to reduce the emission of CO2 into the Atmosphere. Among these techniques, chemical solvent absorption methods have been extensively studied and are considered as a reliable and relatively competitive method for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power plants. Aqueous solutions of alkanol amines are widely used in absorption/desorption processes to separate CO2 from gas streams. Aqueous blends of a primary or a secondary amine with a tertiary amine or carbonate have received much attention. Recent works suggest that a small amount of a primary or secondary amine, such as Mono Ethanol Amine, or Di Ethanol Amine can be added to an aqueous Methyl Di Ethanol Amine solution to promote or enhance the absorption rate of CO2 without significantly affecting the steam stripping equipment.
Generation Expenditure Funcyion of Households after Elimination of Petroleum Subsidy by Slutsky Analysis
Authors: Khalili Farzaneh , Yusoff Nukman Bin
Published: March 2012

After elimination of subsidy the final market price of all goods and services go up so, we investigate the Marshalian demand functions of food and it's items, clothes , health related items,households related items ,transportation and housing after increasing prices of them according to maximize the utility function under assumptions. Due to investigation of changing in prices on demand functions isolate income effect and substitution of demand by employing Slutesky and Hecksian methods. Normal, Necessary and Luxury goods has been divided under elasticity of goods that is revealed FO, H, CL, HT are Inelastic and Necessary goods so, FU(furnishing ) include to elastic and luxury goods. The substitution and income effects reinforce each other when a normal good's own price changes. The 1ÂœLaw1Â of Downward-Sloping Demand always applies to normal goods because substitution and income effects reinforce each other.
Securouter — A Novel Dynamic Firewall System Embedded with IDS Integration
Authors: Shu Jin , Dai Hong-Bin , Zhu Chao
Published: March 2012

As the traditional firewalls filter only the known types of attacks through blocking the packets sent from/to designated IP addresses or ports, only static and very limited protection are provided. A security framework with a double-homed host (SecuRouter) at its core, which is a firewall that could dynamically modify its rule set from the notification messages sent by the legitimate intrusion detection agents running in the protected LAN, is presented in the paper. Through providing a uniform interface with these algorithm-independent intrusion detection modules, the approach shows a better adaptability and extensibility. Provided along with the framework is a packet logging mechanism, with which help further off-line analysis of the network traffic can be easily implemented.
Strategic Thoughts on the Development of New Energy Industry in China
Authors: Zhang Chongkang
Published: March 2012

The energy is an important material foundation of human survival and social progress; it's also a kind of substantial basic resources for economic development and the improvement of people's living standards. Increasing depletion of conventional energy sources today, the biggest advantage of the new energy is a more balanced geographical distribution of resources and a huge amount of resources compared to their human needs, the resources can be described as infinite. Development and utilization of new energy sources will help to optimize energy consumption structure, protecting the environment, ensure energy security. And also stimulate domestic demand, fostering new economic growth point, increase employment opportunities, promote economic and social sustainable development strategy selection. This article describes the classification and characteristics of new energy, development situation in our county and the experience we should learn from international community.
Accelerate the Colorization of Grayscale Video Based on CUDA
Authors: He Xingheng , Chen Qiuhong
Published: March 2012

Among the conventional algorithms of colorization, color transfer algorithm is the most common one. However, the traversal matching of each pixel is inevitable in the case of target color image. Though existing some improved methods of color correlation based, they make little sense on large resolution images and grayscale video rendering. This paper focuses on the use of CUDA, GPU general parallel computing platform, which is rapidly developed in recent years, accelerating colorization and adopting Secondary Coloring method to eliminate the effects of noise. The experimental results imply better acceleration.
The Application of the Science and Technology Management System in Coal Mine Enterprises
Authors: Chu Tian , Cao Hui
Published: March 2012

Establishing reasonable measures for the management of science and technology innovation, not only can reduce equipment loss, improve equipment degree work efficiency, make use of each function of equipment, make the optimization of coal mining technology in underground development aspects, accelerate the progress of the mining, optimize the coal quantity, do improve cogent accomplish high yield and high efficiency, create profits for the enterprise and also can arouse the enthusiasm of the knowledgeable employees, promote the culture construction of the enterprise, and improve the social image of enterprise with tangible and intangible profits for enterprise.
Data Pruning Using ID3 Algorithm for Data Integration in Digital Campus Construction
Authors: Yan Pan
Published: March 2012

Digital campus construction involves the analysis, classification, and integration of existing raw data. This article describes the process of data pruning using ID3 algorithm, for the purpose of eliminating redundant attributes in the data and avoiding bias due to excess values in the integration process. It offers practical implications in data integration for colleges and universities who are designing their digital campuses.
Defect Rate Analysis & Reduction of MPSOC Through Run Time Reconfigurable Computing with Multiple Caches
Authors: Husnain Anees Ul , Ijaz Qaiser
Published: March 2012

The blind increase in the CMOS scaling technology has brought us to a stage where it has reached its saturation point. In here, after laying the basis of this work by having a look at the technology trend, a rising problem is addressed that is faced in manufacturing an MPSOC. Than the discussion is switched at reconfigurable computing architecture and it is extended till run-time reconfigurable computing to lead us to the point that how this scheme can reduces the defect rate problem of MPSOC manufactures. Furthermore, the work concludes at proposing a run time reconfiguring technology for MPSOCs as a replacement technology to reduce defect rates and enhance reliability through fault tolerance. The point emphasized than is that why not the leading market vendors switch towards this technology instead of suffering from all the high defect rates in their fabrication. This paper is not only a research review and proposal of new technology but also another step in the efforts for laying basis of reconfigurable computing as a future of computing technologies in context with problem which modern technology is facing today.
EDUPORT — A New Way to Educate
Authors: Bansal Sanjay , Jain Aman , Goyal Rishabh
Published: March 2012

Every human being should have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves. Unfortunately, many children in the world today grow up without this chance, because they are denied their basic right to even attend primary school. Various reasons like ,the lack of infrastructure, unavailabilty of proper learning environment, social barriers etc develops such curcumstancs which the children cannot bypass. This has led to illetracy thus promoting poverty. It becomes an unanswerable question that, what system should be adopted to give education in such circumstances?. One answer that comes to mind is EDUPORT. It is a complete classroom system that can be installed anywhere and education can be given in any corner of the world.
The Analysis of the Security Problem in Web
Authors: Gao Wenju , Ren Yueou , Li Qiuju , Wang Mingqian , Li Zhe
Published: March 2012

Internet technology is applied in daily life more and more extensively, thus, the corresponding security problems relating with internet are more and more serious. The attack to the web is now mainly from service software nowadays instead of WWW system structure. In this article, web service software and its threat to the security environment of the host computer are discussed, and the correct researching method to the problems pointed out above are presented.
Processing Vietnamese Questions in Natural Language Based Bus Routes Searching System
Authors: Nguyen Dang Tuan , Truong Hung Le , Truong An Quoc
Published: March 2012

In this paper, we introduce our methods and techniques to build the Vietnamese query processing component of our architecture of natural language based bus routes searching system. To construct this component, we have to resolve the syntactic analysis and semantic representation of Vietnamese questions. We have built appropriate syntactic rules to analyze various types of Vietnamese questions which we hope our system can process in this bus routes searching application. A typical model and appropriate related-mechanisms have also been established to process the semantics of Vietnamese questions syntactically analyzed by the system. This Vietnamese query processing component has integrated and tested in a complete bus routes searching system.
Efficient Compression, Querying and Updating XML Repositories Using Hash Indexing Method
Authors: Mahalakshmi B. , Patankar A. J.
Published: March 2012

XML has become the de facto standard for data representation and data communication over the World Wide Web. Due to the self describing nature of XML, it is accepted World Wide as a data exchange. But the same self describing ability makes it verbose and thus introduces redundancy in the document. This large document size also affects efficiency of time and efficiency of storage while transmitting, processing and storing the data. Therefore it is better to use efficient compression techniques for storage and querying. Several XML compression techniques have been introduced from past few years. However those compression techniques require decompression to query the XML document, do not support dynamic updating and also results in huge storage. In this paper we introduce a different approach for compression. Our approach exploits consecutive sub trees and tags for compression using pre order labeling scheme and stores it using indexers, thus resulting in an efficient query processing and reduced storage requirement.
Mobile Terminal Location with an Efficient Geometry-Constrained Based on PSO Algorithm in NLOS Environment
Authors: Chen Darong , Shi Hongbin
Published: March 2012

Finding the location of the mobile phone is one of necessary features in 3G/4G communication system. Nonetheless, for many practical applications, location estimation accuracy is not satisfactory due to the unavoidable non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation is spread in mobile environment. In order to address this problem, an efficient geometry-constrained based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed. The PSO algorithm has high convergence speed and low error for nonlinear calculation in geometry positioning estimation. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed location scheme can meet the demand of E-911 standard.
100 keV electron backscattered range and coefficient for silicon
Authors: Czaplewski David A. , Ocola Leonidas E.
Published: March 2012

The authors have measured the range and intensity of backscattered electrons in silicon from a 100 keV source using a process independent method. Backscattered electrons contributed to the total dose of features written in a negative tone electron beam resist. Instead of measuring the height of the resist and using a contrast curve to convert the resist height to dose, the heights of the features were made equal by adjusting the backscattered contribution through dose assignments. Creating features of equal height eliminated the need to use a contrast curve to convert from resist height to total dose. Also, it allowed for measurements of the backscattered contribution from larger distances. Using a circularly symmetric torus pattern, the three-dimensional backscatter problem was reduced to a 1-dimensional Gaussian form. The authors measured the range of the backscattered electrons, β, to be 31.08 ± 0.06 μm. By varying the writing dose of the pattern, we determined the backscatter coefficient, η, to be 0.63 ± 0.03.
Frequency split metal artifact reduction (FSMAR) in computed tomography
Authors: Meyer Esther , Raupach Rainer , Lell Michael , Schmidt Bernhard , Kachelrieß Marc
Published: March 2012

Purpose

: The problem of metal artifact reduction (MAR) is almost as old as the clinical use of computed tomography itself. When metal implants are present in the field of measurement, severe artifacts degrade the image quality and the diagnostic value of CT images. Up to now, no generally accepted solution to this issue has been found. In this work, a method based on a new MAR concept is presented: frequency split metal artifact reduction (FSMAR). It ensures efficient reduction of metal artifacts at high image quality with enhanced preservation of details close to metal implants.

Methods

: FSMAR combines a raw data inpainting‐based MAR method with an image‐based frequency split approach. Many typical methods for metal artifact reduction are inpainting‐based MAR methods and simply replace unreliable parts of the projection data, for example, by linear interpolation. Frequency split approaches were used in CT, for example, by combining two reconstruction methods in order to reduce cone‐beam artifacts. FSMAR combines the high frequencies of an uncorrected image, where all available data were used for the reconstruction with the more reliable low frequencies of an image which was corrected with an inpainting‐based MAR method. The algorithm is tested in combination with normalized metal artifact reduction (NMAR) and with a standard inpainting‐based MAR approach. NMAR is a more sophisticated inpainting‐based MAR method, which introduces less new artifacts which may result from interpolation errors. A quantitative evaluation was performed using the examples of a simulation of the XCAT phantom and a scan of a spine phantom. Further evaluation includes patients with different types of metal implants: hip prostheses, dental fillings, neurocoil, and spine fixation, which were scanned with a modern clinical dual source CT scanner.

Results

: FSMAR ensures sharp edges and a preservation of anatomical details which is in many cases better than after applying an inpainting‐based MAR method only. In contrast to other MAR methods, FSMAR yields images without the usual blurring close to implants.

Conclusions

: FSMAR should be used together with NMAR, a combination which ensures an accurate correction of both high and low frequencies. The algorithm is computationally inexpensive compared to iterative methods and methods with complex inpainting schemes. No parameters were chosen manually; it is ready for an application in clinical routine.
Characteristics of optically stimulated luminescence dosimeters in the spread‐out Bragg peak region of clinical proton beams
Authors: Kerns James R. , Kry Stephen F. , Sahoo Narayan
Published: March 2012

Purpose:

Optically stimulated luminescent detectors (OSLDs) have a number of advantages in radiation dosimetry making them excellent dosimeters for quality assurance and patient dose verification. Although the dosimeters have been investigated in several modalities, relatively little work has been done in examining the dosimeters for use in clinical proton beams. This study examined a number of characteristics of the response of the dosimeters in the spread‐out Bragg peak (SOBP) region of clinical proton beams.

Methods:

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimeters from Landauer, Inc., specifically the nanoDot dosimeter, were investigated. These dosimeters were placed in a special phantom with a recess to fit the dosimeters without an air gap. Beams with nominal energies of 160, 200, and 250 MeV were used in the passively‐scattered proton beam at the MD Anderson Cancer Center Proton Therapy Center. Dosimetric properties including linearity, field size dependence, energy dependence, residual signal as a function of cumulative dose, and postirradiation fading were investigated by taking measurements at the center of SOBPs.

Results:

The dosimeters showed 1% supralinearity at 200 cGy and 5% supralinearity at 1000 cGy. No noticeable field size dependence of the detector was found for field sizes from 2 × 2 cm2 to 18 × 18 cm2. Residual signal as a function of cumulative dose showed a small increase for measurements up to 1000 cGy. Readout signal depletion of the dosimeters after consecutive readings showed a slightly larger depletion in protons for doses up to 500 cGy but not by a clinically significant amount. Within the center of various SOBP widths and proton energies the variation in response was less than 2%. An average beam quality factor of 1.089 with experimental standard deviation of 0.007 was determined and applied to the data such that the results were within 1.2% of ion chamber data.

Conclusions:

The nanoDot OSL dosimeter characteristics were studied in the SOBP region of clinical proton beams. To achieve accurate dosimetric readings, corrections to the dosimeter response were applied. Corrections tended to be minimal or broadly consistent. The nanoDot OSLD was found to be an acceptable dosimeter for measurement in the SOBP region for a range of clinical proton beams.
Ribosome Profiling Shows That miR-430 Reduces Translation Before Causing mRNA Decay in Zebrafish
Authors: Bazzini Ariel A. , Lee Miler T. , Giraldez Antonio J.
Published: March 2012

Translation Block

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNA genes that are found in the genomes of most eukaryotes, where they play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. Although whether gene activity is repressed by blocking translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) targets, or by promoting their deadenylation and then degradation, has been open to debate.

Bazzini
et al.

(p.
233
, published online 15 March) and

Djuranovic
et al.

(p.
237
) looked at early points in the repression reaction in the zebrafish embryo or in Drosophila tissue culture cells, respectively, and found that translation was blocked before target mRNAs were significantly deadenylated and degraded. Thus, miRNAs appear to interfere with the initiation step of translation.
The Coexistence of Superconductivity and Topological Order in the Bi
2
Se
3
Thin Films
Authors: Wang Mei-Xiao , Liu Canhua , Xu Jin-Peng , Yang Fang , Miao Lin , Yao Meng-Yu , Gao C. L. , Shen Chenyi , Ma Xucun , Chen X. , Xu Zhu-An , Liu Ying , Zhang Shou-Cheng , Qian Dong , Jia Jin-Feng , Xue Qi-Kun
Published: March 2012

All Set for Majoranas

When put in the proximity of a superconductor, topological insulators (TIs) are expected to support Majorana fermions, exotic particles that are their own antiparticles. For this to be realized, the interface between the TI and superconductor layers has to be atomically sharp but electronically transparent.

Wang
et al.

(p.
52
, published online 15 March) fabricated this heterostructure by growing a film of the TI material Bi
2
Se
3
on the superconductor NbSe
2
covered with a Bi bilayer. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy revealed a superconducting gap on the TI surface of the heterostructure with varying thickness of the Bi
2
Se
3
film. This coexistence of superconductivity and topological order should now allow observation of exotic phenomena such as Majorana fermions.
ESCRT-III Governs the Aurora B–Mediated Abscission Checkpoint Through CHMP4C
Authors: Carlton Jeremy G. , Caballe Anna , Agromayor Monica , Kloc Magdalena , Martin-Serrano Juan
Published: March 2012

To Cut or Not to Cut

During animal cell division, the final separation of daughter cells requires ESCRT-III (endosomal sorting complex required for transport III), the core membrane scission machinery.

Carlton
et al.

(p.
220
, published online 15 March; see the Perspective by

Petronczki and Uhlmann

) report that ESCRT-III modulates abscission timing through one of its subunits, CHMP4C. Depletion of CHMP4C results in faster resolution of the midbody, the cytoplasmic bridge that connects the daughter cells at the end of cytokinesis. This phenotype correlates with a differential spatiotemporal distribution of CHMP4C at the midbody. As CHMP4C is essential for activating the Aurora B–mediated abscission checkpoint, consequently, depletion of CHMP4C results in the accumulation of genetic damage. Thus, the ESCRT machinery protects the cell against genetic damage by coordinating its cytokinetic activity with the abscission checkpoint.
Introduction and evaluation of a ‘pre-ART care’ service in Swaziland: an operational research study
Authors: Burtle David , Welfare William , Elden Susan , Mamvura Canaan , Vandelanotte Joris , Petherick Emily , Walley John , Wright John
Published: March 2012

Objective

To implement and evaluate a formal pre-antiretroviral therapy (ART) care service at a district hospital in Swaziland.

Design

Operational research.

Setting

District hospital in Southern Africa.

Participants

1171 patients with a previous diagnosis of HIV. A baseline patient group consisted of the first 200 patients using the service. Two follow-up groups were defined: group 1 was all patients recruited from April to June 2009 and group 2 was 200 patients recruited in February 2010.

Intervention

Introduction of pre-ART care—a package of interventions, including counselling; regular review; clinical staging; timely initiation of ART; social and psychological support; and prevention and management of opportunistic infections, such as tuberculosis.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Proportion of patients assessed for ART eligibility, proportion of eligible patients who were started on ART and proportion receiving defined evidence-based interventions (including prophylactic co-trimoxazole and tuberculosis screening).

Results

Following the implementation of the pre-ART service, the proportion of patients receiving defined interventions increased; the proportion of patient being assessed for ART eligibility significantly increased (baseline: 59%, group 1: 64%, group 2: 76%; p=0.001); the proportion of ART-eligible patients starting treatment increased (baseline: 53%, group 1: 81%, group: 2, 81%; p<0.001) and the median time between patients being declared eligible for ART and initiation of treatment significantly decreased (baseline: 61 days, group 1: 39 days, group 2: 14 days; p<0.001).

Conclusions

This intervention was part of a shift in the model of care from a fragmented acute care model to a more comprehensive service. The introduction of structured pre-ART was associated with significant improvements in the assessment, management and timeliness of initiation of treatment for patients with HIV.
A question–answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites to answer complex questions submitted to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS): a descriptive study
Authors: Schjøtt Jan , Reppe Linda A , Roland Pål-Didrik H , Westergren Tone
Published: March 2012

Objective

To assess a question–answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites developed for drug information centres to answer complex questions effectively.

Design

Descriptive study with comparison of two subsequent 6-year periods (1995–2000 and 2001–2006).

Setting

The Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS).

Participants

A randomised sample of QAPs from the RELIS database.

Primary outcome measure

Answer time in days compared with Mann–Whitney U test.

Secondary outcome measure

Number of drugs involved (one, two, three or more), complexity (judgemental and/or patient-related or not) and literature search (none, simple or advanced) compared with χ2tests.

Results

842 QAPs (312 from 1995 to 2000 and 530 from 2001 to 2006) were compared. The fraction of judgemental and patient-related questions increased (66%–75% and 54%–72%, respectively, p<0.01). Number of drugs and literature search (>50% advanced) was similar in the two periods, but the fraction of answers referring to the RELIS database increased (13%–31%, p<0.01). Median answer time was reduced from 2 days to 1 (p<0.01), although the fraction of complex questions increased from the first to the second period. Furthermore, the mean number of questions per employee per year increased from 66 to 89 from the first to the second period.

Conclusions

The authors conclude that RELIS has a potential to efficiently answer complex questions. The model is of relevance for organisation of drug information centres.
Non-response in a nationwide follow-up postal survey in Finland: a register-based mortality analysis of respondents and non-respondents of the Health and Social Support (HeSSup) Study
Authors: Suominen Sakari , Koskenvuo Karoliina , Sillanmäki Lauri , Vahtera Jussi , Korkeila Katariina , Kivimäki Mika , Mattila Kari J , Virtanen Pekka , Sumanen Markku , Rautava Päivi , Koskenvuo Markku
Published: March 2012

Objective

To examine difference in mortality between postal survey non-respondents and respondents.

Design

A prospective cohort study with baseline survey in 1998 and comprehensive linkage to national mortality registers until 2005, the Health and Social Support study.

Setting

A population-based postal survey of the working-aged population in Finland in 1998.

Participants

The original random sample comprised 64 797 working-aged individuals in Finland (20–24, 30–34, 40–44, 50–54 years of age; 32 059 women and 32 716 men), yielding 25 898 (40.0%) responses in the baseline postal survey in 1998.

Primary outcome measure

Registry-based primary causes of death encoded with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).

Results

In women, HR for total mortality was 1.75 (95% CI 1.40 to 2.19) times higher among the non-respondents compared with the respondents. In men, non-response was associated with a 1.41-fold (1.21–1.65) excess risk of total mortality. Non-response associated in certain age groups with deaths due to diseases in women and with deaths due to external causes in men. The most prominent excess mortality was seen for total mortality for both genders and for mortality due to external causes among men.

Conclusions

Postal surveys result in slight underestimation of illness prevalence.
Job strain among blue-collar and white-collar employees as a determinant of total mortality: a 28-year population-based follow-up
Authors: von Bonsdorff Mikaela B , Seitsamo Jorma , von Bonsdorff Monika E , Ilmarinen Juhani , Nygård Clas-Håkan , Rantanen Taina
Published: March 2012

Objectives

To investigate the effect of job demand, job control and job strain on total mortality among white-collar and blue-collar employees working in the public sector.

Design

28-year prospective population-based follow-up.

Setting

Several municipals in Finland.

Participants

5731 public sector employees from the Finnish Longitudinal Study on Municipal Employees Study aged 44–58 years at baseline.

Outcomes

Total mortality from 1981 to 2009 among individuals with complete data on job strain in midlife, categorised according to job demand and job control: high job strain (high job demands and low job control), active job (high job demand and high job control), passive job (low job demand and low job control) and low job strain (low job demand and high job control).

Results

1836 persons died during the follow-up. Low job control among men increased (age-adjusted HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.42) and high job demand among women decreased the risk for total mortality HR 0.82 (95% CI 0.71 to 0.95). Adjustment for occupational group, lifestyle and health factors attenuated the association for men. In the analyses stratified by occupational group, high job strain increased the risk of mortality among white-collar men (HR 1.52, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.13) and passive job among blue-collar men (HR 1.28, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.47) compared with men with low job strain. Adjustment for lifestyle and health factors attenuated the risks. Among white-collar women having an active job decreased the risk for mortality (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.60 to 1.00).

Conclusion

The impact of job strain on mortality was different according to gender and occupational group among middle-aged public sector employees.
Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in the community (SIVE): protocol for a cohort study exploiting a unique national linked data set
Authors: Lone Nazir I , Simpson Colin , Kavanagh Kimberley , Robertson Chris , McMenamin Jim , Ritchie Lewis , Sheikh Aziz
Published: March 2012

Introduction

Seasonal influenza vaccination is recommended for all individuals aged 65 years and over and in individuals younger than 65 years with comorbidities. There is good evidence of vaccine effectiveness (VE) in young healthy individuals but less robust evidence for effectiveness in the populations targeted for influenza vaccination. Undertaking a randomised controlled trial to assess VE is now impractical due to the presence of national vaccination programmes. Quasi-experimental designs offer the potential to advance the evidence base in such scenarios, and the authors have therefore been commissioned to undertake a naturalistic national evaluation of seasonal influenza VE by using data derived from linkage of a number of Scottish health databases. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the seasonal influenza vaccination in the Scottish population.

Methods and analysis

A cohort study design will be used pooling data over nine seasons. A primary care database covering 4% of the Scottish population for the period 2000–2009 has been linked to the national database of hospital admissions and the death register and is being linked to the Health Protection Scotland virology database. The primary outcome is VE measured in terms of rate of hospital admissions due to respiratory illness. Multivariable regression will be used to produce estimates of VE adjusted for confounders. The major challenge of this approach is addressing the strong effect of confounding due to vaccinated individuals being systematically different from unvaccinated individuals. Analyses using propensity scores and instrumental variables will be undertaken, and the effect of an unknown confounder will be modelled in a sensitivity analysis to assess the robustness of the estimates.

Ethics and dissemination

The West of Scotland Research Ethics Committee has classified this project as surveillance. The study findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications and presented at international conferences.
Development of an evidence-based framework of factors contributing to patient safety incidents in hospital settings: a systematic review
Authors: Lawton Rebecca , McEachan Rosemary R C , Giles Sally J , Sirriyeh Reema , Watt Ian S , Wright John
Published: March 2012

Objective

The aim of this systematic review was to develop a ‘contributory factors framework’ from a synthesis of empirical work which summarises factors contributing to patient safety incidents in hospital settings.

Design

A mixed-methods systematic review of the literature was conducted.

Data sources

Electronic databases (Medline, PsycInfo, ISI Web of knowledge, CINAHL and EMBASE), article reference lists, patient safety websites, registered study databases and author contacts.

Eligibility criteria

Studies were included that reported data from primary research in secondary care aiming to identify the contributory factors to error or threats to patient safety.

Results

1502 potential articles were identified. 95 papers (representing 83 studies) which met the inclusion criteria were included, and 1676 contributory factors extracted. Initial coding of contributory factors by two independent reviewers resulted in 20 domains (eg, team factors, supervision and leadership). Each contributory factor was then coded by two reviewers to one of these 20 domains. The majority of studies identified active failures (errors and violations) as factors contributing to patient safety incidents. Individual factors, communication, and equipment and supplies were the other most frequently reported factors within the existing evidence base.

Conclusions

This review has culminated in an empirically based framework of the factors contributing to patient safety incidents. This framework has the potential to be applied across hospital settings to improve the identification and prevention of factors that cause harm to patients.
Sustaining improved end of life care in care homes
Authors: Moyes Rhona , Stevensony Barbara , Oxenham David , Finucane Anne
Published: March 2012

Background

UK policy calls for care homes to provide reliably good palliative and end of life (EOL) care (Care Commission, Better Care Every Step of the Way, 2009). Consequently an intervention was designed to enhance the quality of palliative and EOL care provided by seven care homes in Midlothian, Scotland. Phase 1 consisted of a high facilitation model led by a palliative nurse specialist. This involved inhouse training of care home staff and visits to care homes every 10–14 days which resulted in significant improvements in end of life care outcomes (Hockleyet al, 2010; Palliative Medicine, 24(8)). Phase 2 attempted to sustain the positive outcomes with a lower level of facilitation.

Aim

To establish the extent to which a lower facilitation model would sustain the results achieved during the high-facilitation period.

Method

Two palliative care nurse specialists each spent 1 day per week providing support and training to care home staff and GPs over an 18 month period.

Results

96% of patients who died during Phase 2 had an advance care plan; an increase from 53% following Phase 1 and from 4% at baseline. 57% of patients were on the Liverpool Care Pathway; up from 30% following Phase 1 and 3% at baseline. 86% of patients had a DNACPR status, up from 72% after Phase 1 and 15% at baseline. Inappropriate hospital deaths were 4%, down from 8% following Phase 1 and 15% at baseline.

Conclusions

A lower facilitation model managed to sustain and build on the outcomes achieved during Phase 1. Two specialist nurses were able to strategically support and train staff to provide a high standard of end of life care to care home residents. This model will now be used to introduce a palliative approach in a much wider group of care homes throughout the region.