bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
SPEAKER-INDEPENDENT RECOGNITION OF ISOLATED WORDS USING CONCATENATED NEURAL NETWORKS
Authors: WU CHUNG-HSIEN , WANG JHING-FA , HUANG CHAUG-CHING , LEE JAU-YIEN
Published: November 2004

A speaker-independent isolated word recognizer is proposed. It is obtained by concatenating a Bayesian neural network and a Hopfield time-alignment network. In this system, the Bayesian network outputs the a posteriori probability for each speech frame, and the Hopfield network is then concatenated for time warping. A proposed splitting Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) algorithm derived from the LBG clustering algorithm and the Kohonen LVQ algorithm is first used to train the Bayesian network. The LVQ2 algorithm is subsequently adopted as a final refinement step. A continuous mixture of Gaussian densities for each frame and multi-templates for each word are employed to characterize each word pattern. Experimental evaluation of this system with four templates/word and five mixtures/frame, using 53 speakers (28 males, 25 females) and isolated words (10 digits and 30 city names) databases, gave average recognition accuracies of 97.3%, for the speaker-trained mode and 95.7% for the speaker-independent mode, respectively. Comparisons with K-means and DTW algorithms show that the integration of the splitting LVQ and LVQ2 algorithms makes this system well suited to speaker-independent isolated word recognition. A cookbook approach for the determination of parameters in the Hopfield time-alignment network is also described.
A TOOL FOR CONSTRUCTING INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE
Authors: HURLEY W. DAVID
Published: November 2004

The Tailor is a research tool for refining and evaluating a design representation for software systems that have a high degree of textual and graphical interaction. The design representation incorporates both software engineering and knowledge engineering techniques, providing a set of conventions for describing software design information and software construction knowledge. The Tailor demonstrates that the design representation, when embedded in a productivity tool, overcomes limitations of current generation user interface tools. For example, the Tailor has the capability to foresee construction difficulties arising from earlier design decisions. It uses this capability to provide active guidance in producing a software design that avoids problems otherwise overlooked during software specification and design.
COMPUTER AIDED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING: FACILITATING THE PATH FOR TRUE SOFTWARE AND KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING
Authors: GIBSON MICHAEL L. , SNYDER CHARLES A.
Published: November 2004

An emerging enterprise-wide orientation evidenced by comprehensive enterprise modeling supported by a technological architecture that includes computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools may empower knowledge and software engineers greater than ever before. An enterprise-wide orientation seeks to carry the strategy of an organization throughout its operations. Enterprise modeling makes it possible to have this panoramic view of the enterprise. An advanced technological architecture that includes CASE empowers enterprise functional personnel, knowledge engineers, and software engineers with the methodological and technological platform required to produce a comprehensive enterprise model. Current environmental trends are influencing how well organizations implement this enterprise-wide orientation, modeling perspective, and the methodological and technological platform.
CASE AND ITS CHALLENGE FOR CHANGE
Authors: BOONE GREG
Published: November 2004

Although the majority of professional trade press and academic attention regarding CASE (Computer Aided Software/Systems Engineering) has focused on technology, software developers have not been deluded by overinflated productivity gains attributed to those technologies. Truly profound technologies require a concomitant change in methods, practices, and techniques. Unfortunately, the majority of the software industry has had the expectation that CASE will automate their current work without rethinking work practices. Changing work practices, particularly among highly independent-minded software developers, who prize independent creativity more than team engineering, is the most difficult challenge facing the advance of the software development profession. Equally difficult is the ideological change from a productivity improvement expectation to a quality improvement expectation. This paper examines the current rate of CASE adoption and the changes necessary to accelerate its successful adoption.
A FRAMEWORK FOR THE MODELING AND PROTOTYPING OF DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Authors: DENG YI , CHANG SHI-KUO
Published: November 2004

The major issues in designing Distributed Information Systems (DIS) include localization of control and data, inherent concurrency, intensive interactions among computation agents, history sensitivity, dynamic configuration and continuous system change and evolution. We propose a framework, called the G-Net model, for the specification, modeling and prototyping of DIS. The G-Net model not only provides a flexible notation to represent the executable specification of DIS through G-Net instantiation, but also offers a novel style of decentralized concurrent computation, allowing flexible inter-agent communication and interaction. A prototype of the G-Net framework has been implemented on workstations connected by a local network.
UNDERSTANDING SOFTWARE PRODUCTIVITY: TOWARDS A KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACH
Authors: SCACCHI WALT
Published: November 2004

What affects software productivity and how do we improve it? This report examines the current state of the art in understanding and measuring software productivity. In turn, it describes a framework for understanding software productivity, identifies some fundamentals of measurement, surveys selected studies of software productivity, and identifies variables that affect software productivity. Then, a radical alternative to current approaches is suggested: to construct, evaluate, deploy, and evolve a knowledge-based "software productivity modeling and simulation system."
TRANSFORMING CONJUNCTIVE MATCH INTO RETE: A CALL-GRAPH CACHING APPROACH
Authors: PERLIN MARK W.
Published: November 2004

Conjunctive match is often used in Artificial Intelligence as the kernel of a pattern-directed inference [37] engine. Conjunctive match entails generating and testing all possible combinations of objects against a pattern of constraints. While simple to program, it is an expensive, exponential cost computation.

To reduce this average match cost in production system engines, the RETE match algorithm [8] was devised. RETE compiles each rule's pattern of constraints into a network, and then incrementally updates partial matches as objects are inserted and deleted. RETE, however, has its own cost: conceptual and implementational complexity.

Call-graph caching (CGC) [20] is a mechanism for transforming recursive specifications into highly optimized networks. In this paper, we describe CGC, and use it to transform a family of recursive conjunctive match formulations into their corresponding RETE networks. Our approach illustrates the ideas behind RETE, and shows their application to other algorithms.
INCREMENTAL LEARNING OF PRODUCTION RULES FROM EXAMPLES UNDER UNCERTAINTY: A ROUGH SET APPROACH
Authors: CHAN CHIEN-CHUNG
Published: November 2004

This paper introduces an algorithm, LEM3, for incremental learning of production rules from examples. Based on the concept of rough sets introduced by Pawlak, LEM3 is capable of learning rules from consistent as well as inconsistent examples. In LEM3, rules are generated by using the rule-generating procedure implemented in a nonincremental learning program LEM2. Consequently, the rules learned by LEM3 do not use redundant attribute-value pairs.

One major feature of LEM3 is the incorporation of a separate global data structure for storing information learned from new examples. The global data structure is updated on an example by example basis, and it provides all the essential information for the incremental updating of lower and upper approximations of a concept and the generating of rules. This separation of learned knowledge from rule-generating procedures provides a more modular design of learning systems.
VORONOI DIAGRAMS OF MOVING POINTS IN THE PLANE
Authors: FU JYH-JONG , LEE R. C. T.
Published: November 2004

In this paper, we consider the dynamic Voronoi diagram problem. In this problem, a given set of planar points are moving and our objective is to find the Voronoi diagram of these moving points at any time t. A preprocessing algorithm and a query processing algorithm are presented in this paper. Assume that the points are in k-motion, and it takes O(k) time to find roots of a polynomial with degree O(k). The preprocessing algorithm takes O(k2n3 log n · 2O(α(n)5k+1)) time to process moving functions of given points, and uses O(k2n32O(α(n)5k+1)) space to store the preprocessing result where α(n) is the functional inverse of Ackermann's function. The query processing algorithm is designed to report the Voronoi diagram of these points for a query time t. It takes O(n) time which is optimal.
ERROR BOUNDED VARIABLE DISTANCE OFFSET OPERATOR FOR FREE FORM CURVES AND SURFACES
Authors: ELBER GERSHON , COHEN ELAINE
Published: November 2004

Most offset approximation algorithms for freeform curves and surfaces may be classified into two main groups. The first approximates the curve using simple primitives such as piecewise arcs and lines and then calculates the (exact) offset operator to this approximation. The second offsets the control polygon/mesh and then attempts to estimate the error of the approximated offset over a region. Most of the current offset algorithms estimate the error using a finite set of samples taken from the region and therefore can not guarantee the offset approximation is within a given tolerance over the whole curve or surface.

This paper presents new methods to globally bound the error of the approximated offset of freeform curves and surfaces and then automatically derive new approximations with improved accuracy. These tools can also be used to develop a global error bound for a variable distance offset operation and to detect and trim out loops in the offset.
THE EXPECTED EXTREMES IN A DELAUNAY TRIANGULATION
Authors: BERN MARSHALL , EPPSTEIN DAVID , YAO FRANCES
Published: November 2004

We give an expected-case analysis of Delaunay triangulations. To avoid edge effects we consider a unit-intensity Poisson process in Euclidean d-space, and then limit attention to the portion of the triangulation within a cube of side n1/d. For d equal to two, we calculate the expected maximum edge length, the expected minimum and maximum angles, and the average aspect ratio of a triangle. We also show that in any fixed dimension the expected maximum vertex degree is Θ( log n/ log log n). Altogether our results provide some measure of the suitability of the Delaunay triangulation for certain applications, such as interpolation and mesh generation.
SHORTEST RECTILINEAR PATHS AMONG WEIGHTED OBSTACLE
Authors: LEE D. T. , YANG C. D. , CHEN T. H.
Published: November 2004

We consider a rectilinear shortest path problem among weighted obstacles. Instead of restricting a path to totally avoid obstacles we allow a path to pass through them at extra costs. The extra costs are represented by the weights of the obstacles. We aim to find a shortest rectilinear path between two distinguished points among a set of weighted obstacles. The unweighted case is a special case of this problem when the weight of each obstacle is +∞. By using a graph-theoretical approach, we obtain two algorithms which run in O(n log 2 n) time and O(n log n) space and in O(n log 3/2 n) time and space, respectively, where n is the number of the vertices of the obstacles.
COMPUTATIONAL GEOMETRY COLUMN 12
Authors: O'ROURKE JOSEPH
Published: November 2004

Seven open problems are discussed. The problems are gathered from recent papers and from problems sessions at recent conferences.
DESIGN METHODOLOGY OF BOUNDARY DATA STRUCTURES
Authors: ALA SESHAGIRI RAO
Published: November 2004

In this paper we propose a universal data structure (UDS), termed as UDS, which will aid in the design of optimal boundary data structures. We later show, with the aid of some recently published data structures, that any data structure can be expressed as a special case of UDS. We demonstrate how the application of the optimality concepts of the UDS can lead us to the discovery of more efficient data structures than popular data structures. We also discuss two approaches for optimization. We show that a globally optimal data structure is better than a special purpose optimal data structure.
DETERMINATION OF MASS PROPERTIES OF POLYGONAL CSG OBJECTS IN PARALLEL
Authors: NARAYANASWAMI CHANDRASEKHAR , FRANKLIN WILLIAM RANDOLPH
Published: November 2004

A parallel algorithm for determining the mass properties of objects represented in the Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) scheme that uses polygons as primitives is presented. The algorithm exploits the fact that integration of local information around the vertices of the evaluated polygon is sufficient for the determination of its mass properties, i.e., determination of the edges and the complete topology of the evaluated polygon is not necessary. This reduces interprocessor communication and makes it suitable for parallel processing. The algorithm uses data parallelism, spatial partitioning and parallel sorting for parallelization. Tuple-sets on which simple operations have to be performed are identified. The elements of tuple-sets are distributed among the processors for parallelization. The uniform grid spatial partitioning technique is used to generate sub-problems that can be done in parallel and to reduce the cardinality of some of the tuple-sets generated in the algorithm. Parallel sorting is used to sort the tuple-sets between the data-parallel phases of the algorithm.
INTERACTION WITH CONSTRAINTS IN 3D MODELING
Authors: SOHRT WOLFGANG , BRÜDERLIN BEAT D.
Published: November 2004

This paper presents an implementation of an interactive solid modeling system that integrates 1) the definition of objects by graphical interaction and 2) the specification of objects by geometric constraints. In this system, interactive modeling operations for constructing assemblies automatically generate constraints to maintain the properties intended by their invocation, and constraints, in turn, determine the degrees of freedom for further interactive mouse-controlled modeling operations. A symbolic geometric constraint solver is employed for solving systems of simultaneous constraints. Group hierarchies are utilized for representing dependencies and for localizing systems of constraints.
A SURFACE INTERSECTION ALGORITHM BASED ON LOOP DETECTION
Authors: HOHMEYER MICHAEL E.
Published: November 2004

A robust and efficient surface intersection algorithm that is implementable in floating point arithmetic, accepts surfaces algebraic or otherwise and which operates without human supervision is critical to boundary representation solid modeling. To the author's knowledge, no such algorithms has been developed. All tolerance-based subdivision algorithms will fail on surfaces with sufficiently small intersections. Algebraic techniques, while promising robustness, are presently too slow to be practical and do not accept non-algebraic surfaces. Algorithms based on loop detection hold promise. They do not require tolerances except those associated with machine associated with machine arithmetic, and can handle any surface for which there is a method to construct bounds on the surface and its Gauss map. Published loop detection algorithms are, however, still too slow and do not deal with singularities. We present a new loop detection criterion and discuss its use in a surface intersection algorithms. The algorithm, like other loop detection based intersection algorithms, subdivides the surfaces into pairs of sub-patches which do not intersect in any closed loops. This paper presents new strategies for subdividing surfaces in a way that causes the algorithms to run quickly even when the intersection curve(s) contain(s) singularities.
A FLEXIBLE TRANSACTION FRAMEWORK FOR DYNAMIC COLLABORATION OF AGENTS–WITH AN ONLINE TRAVEL APPLICATION
Authors: AHN HYUNG JUN , PARK SUNG JOO
Published: November 2004

The advancement of Internet-based commerce has created a turbulent market environment by allowing easier introduction of new products, services, and suppliers. For this dynamic environment, information systems need to be designed in a flexible way to meet the changing requirements. This paper proposes a flexible transaction framework for multi-agent systems so that agent systems can adapt to various types of changes in the dynamic electronic market environment. The flexible transaction framework consists of a flexible conversation model (FCM) for agents and an ontology meta-model called TOO (Task-Oriented Ontology) for the specific requirements of FCM. FCM permits agents to use newly acquired conversation policies that are induced by the frequent changes in transaction methods. Since FCM requires agents to be aware of a broader set of ontology entities, TOO is used to reduce the complexity of the ontology design and implementation for FCM. The flexible transaction framework is illustrated with an online traveling system developed for Korean domestic transportation services. The prospective synergy between the present work and Web services is discussed in the discussion section.
MODELING COOPERATION IN VIRTUAL DISTRICTS: A METHODOLOGY FOR E-SERVICE DESIGN
Authors: COLOMBO ENZO , FRANCALANCI CHIARA , PERNICI BARBARA
Published: November 2004

E-services can be used to wrap an organization's information system and to provide a standard interface that enables cooperation with other information systems. As a consequence, e-services should not only support operating activities, but also embed mechanisms for inter-organizational coordination and control over operating activities. Inter-organizational coordination and control are based on contractual agreements that coordinate processes across cooperating companies and establish mechanisms to control the fulfillment of production goals. The objective of this paper is to describe a methodological approach for the design of e-services that supports the specification of inter-organizational coordination and control requirements. The paper explains how the methodology is structured in three phases, from requirements specification to conceptual design and implementation. The first phase of the methodology supports the specification of cooperation requirements, which constitute the static description of coordination and control requirements. In the second methodological phase, this static description is completed with a dynamic description of the actions to be taken upon exceptions, which occur when cooperating partners do not comply with cooperation goals. The static and dynamic description of coordination and control represent a conceptual specification of a business transaction. In the final methodological phase, this conceptual specification is implemented based on the WSDL and BPEL4WS languages for e-service design. The methodology is tested on the case study of the Italian production district of Matera.
ABSTRACTING AND ENFORCING WEB SERVICE PROTOCOLS
Authors: BENATALLAH BOUALEM , CASATI FABIO , SKOGSRUD HALVARD , TOUMANI FAROUK
Published: November 2004

Web services are emerging as a promising technology for the automation of inter-organizational interactions. As technology matures and the foundations of Web services become more solid, users will start to demand tools that facilitate the service development lifecycle. It is only when such tools become available that novel technologies become applied and enter the mainstream, since the complexity, cost and time necessary to deploy and manage solutions is dramatically reduced.

In this paper, we present a framework and a tool that support the model-driven development of Web services. The idea consists in identifying key Web services abstractions, in addition to those of basic Web services standards, that enable the description of service policies and properties that are useful in practice. In this paper, we focus on service protocols, and specifically on conversation and trust negotiation protocols. These protocols are modeled by means of graphical tools and high-level languages so that they are easy to specify, understand, and evolve. The tools also support the automatic generation of service implementation skeletons based on these abstractions, manage the entire service lifecycle, and provide run-time support to verify that the interaction among clients and services occur in compliance with the specified policies.
QUANTUM STOCHASTIC CALCULUS ON BOOLEAN FOCK SPACE
Authors: BEN GHORBAL ANIS , SCHÜRMANN MICHAEL
Published: November 2004

In this paper we establish a theory of stochastic integration with respect to the basic field operator processes in the Boolean case. This leads to a Boolean version of quantum Itô's product formula and has applications to the theory of dilations of quantum dynamical semigroups.
Time expenditure in patient-related care provided by specialist palliative care nurses in a community hospice service
Authors: Weber Martin , Grohmann Lieselotte
Published: November 2004

Although the importance of specialist palliative care in home care programmes for terminally ill patients is well known, German community hospice services did not begin to employ nurses who had specialized in palliative care until the early 1990s. The general tasks of these nurses are sufficiently well defined, but no comprehensive data of their daily workload are available in Germany to date. The present article examines time expenditure in direct patient-related care at the community-based hospice service in Mainz, Germany, by analysing time registration sheets concerning 351 patients who received care from January 2000 until December 2002. Fifty-five per cent of care time spent on each individual patient was in direct contact with that patient and/or his or her relatives, 20% of the time was spent on networking and other related tasks, 17% on travelling and 8% on bereavement counselling. Activities in direct patient contact were allotted to pain and symptom control (36.4%) and psychosocial support of the patient (32.4%) or his or her relatives (27.1%), whereas nursing issues played a minor role (4%).
Admission to intensive care unit at the end-of-life: is it an informed decision?
Authors: Rady Mohamed Y , Johnson Daniel J
Published: November 2004

There is a major deficiency in the end-of-life care offered to patients dying in the intensive care unit (ICU). Hypothesis: Hospitalized dying patients had informed discussions on endof-life and palliative care options before admission to ICU. Patients and methods: A descriptive non-interventional study was performed at a teaching hospital to examine if patients who died in hospital had informed discussions on end-of-life care before admission to ICU. The impact of these discussions on subsequent patient care: aggressive therapy in the ICU, the quality of palliation, use of hospice care services and utilization of hospital resources were examined. Data were collected from medical records for all hospital deaths over 24 months. Results: Of 252 hospital deaths, 196 (78%) were treated and subsequently 165 (65%) died in the ICU. Patients treated either in the ICU or general hospital wards had similar frequency of ultimately or rapidly fatal pre-existing disease (47% versus 62%, P: ns) and readmission to hospital within one year before death (43% versus 57%, P, ns). The median age (10-90% percentile) was slightly younger for the ICU than hospital wards patients: 73 (45-85) versus 76 (55-91) years, PB / 0.01. Of the 156 patients who were transferred to ICU from hospital wards: 136 (87%) were managed by house staff on teaching services and 20 (13%) were managed by attending staff hospitalists, PB / 0.01. None of those transferred to the ICU who subsequently died had discussion of palliation or end-of-life care as an alternative treatment. Of those who died who were treated on general wards, 14 (25%) patients had discussion of palliation as an alternative treatment option before death. Do-not-resuscitate decisions were made in 48% of cases two days before death. Patients who were treated in the ICU had more invasive tests performed on them and were less likely to have adequate pain control or referral to hospice care services than on a general ward. Median hospital charge was much higher for patients who received ICU versus general ward care ($33 252 versus $8549, PB / 0.001). Conclusions: Patients who died in the ICU did not have informed discussions of end-of-life or palliative care as an alternative treatment option before admission. The quality of end-of-life care was disrupted for patients with fatal pre-existing chronic disease who were admitted to the ICU before death. Lack of clinical experience, knowledge and competency with end-of-life care influenced admission of patients to ICU regardless of poor prognosis. Decisions regarding the pursuit of aggressive therapy versus palliative care must be addressed with patients by physicians who are competent and experienced in end-of-life care as this will have a profound impact on both the quality of care delivered and effective use of limited hospital resources.
Case studies: A research strategy appropriate for palliative care?
Authors: Walshe Catherine E , Caress Ann L , Chew-Graham Carolyn , Todd Chris J
Published: November 2004

Selecting an appropriate research strategy is key to ensuring that research questions are addressed in a way which has value and is congruent with the overall topic, questions and purpose of the research. This paper will argue that there are situations when a case study strategy is appropriate to use in palliative care research. These include: when complex situations need to be addressed; when context is central to the study; when multiple perspectives need to be recognized; when the design needs to be flexible; when the research needs to be congruent with clinical practice; when there is no strong theory to which to appeal; and when other methodologies could be difficult to conduct. Using case study strategies rigorously and appropriately can contribute to knowledge in a way which is sensitive to the complex, context-dependent and multiprofessional nature of palliative care.
Oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate in the management of breakthrough pain in cancer: an open, multicentre, dose-titration and long-term use study
Authors: Hanks G W , Nugent M , Higgs C M B , Busch M A
Published: November 2004

Sixty-six patients with cancer-related pain entered an open multicentre study to examine the safety and efficacy of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) in the treatment of breakthrough pain. Patients were eligible for the study if they were stabilized on a long acting opioid but were experiencing up to four episodes of breakthrough pain a day and achieving at least partial relief from breakthrough pain using conventional medication (normal release oral morphine in the majority of patients). The efficacy of the conventional medication was documented in a run-in phase and patients then changed to OTFC. All patients were treated initially with a 200 mcg unit of OTFC and the dose was increased if necessary to a level that produced relief of breakthrough pain without troublesome adverse effects. Fifty-eight patients completed the run-in phase using their usual medication and entered the dose titration phase with OTFC and 57 patients received at least one dose of OTFC. Forty-two patients (72%) found a successful dose of OTFC. The primary outcome measures were the Summed Pain Intensity Differences (SPID) and Total Pain Relief (TOTPAR) scores at 60 min. There was a significant difference in both measures in favour of OTFC compared with conventional medication in these patients. Twenty-eight of the 42 patients (67%) preferred OTFC to their usual medication. The most common adverse effects attributed to OTFC were nausea, stomatitis, vomiting and dizziness but there were no unpredicted or severe problems. Thirty-seven patients continued into the long-term study and 12 of these completed six months treatment. Most drop-outs in this phase were associated with progression of the underlying disease. No patient stopped using OTFC because of dissatisfaction with the drug. OTFC appears to be a safe and effective treatment for breakthrough pain in cancer patients and may have advantages over currently available opioid formulations.
Endovenous management of varicose veins
Authors: Soumian S , Davies A H
Published: November 2004

Objective: Chronic venous disease has made a considerable socio-economical impact in the developed world due to its high prevalence and cost of management. Venous hypertension gives rise to significant signs and symptoms that are indications for treatment. Though the mainstay of treatment currently is surgery, it may not be the ideal choice in some cases considering the heterogeneous spectrum of venous disease. Recent alternative endovenous treatments have shown a lot of promise in successfully treating this condition. The aim of this review was to assess the long-term effectiveness of these treatments.

Methods: A Medline-based review of literature was carried out.

Results: Foam sclerotherapy seems to be a very promising treatment for venous disease, as short-term results have shown good results in terms of outcomes, low morbidity and cost. New endovenous techniques such as radiofrequency and laser ablation are attractive considering the absence of groin scar and subsequent neovascularization, as well as very little bruising and discomfort.

Conclusions: There is no clear evidence yet regarding the long-term effectiveness of these relatively new endovenous techniques.
Endoluminal treatment of lower limb varicose veins by endovenous laser and radiofrequency techniques
Authors: Perrin M
Published: November 2004

Objective: New endovenous treatment techniques for varicose veins – endovenous laser (EVLT) and radiofrequency (RF) – have been the subject of numerous publications during recent years. The aim of this study was to analyse the articles published in English and French and to compare the two procedures with classical surgery.

Methods: While RF uses only one type of device, manufactured and distributed by a sole company, EVLT uses different types of lasers, manufactured and marketed by several companies. Therefore, RF benefits from a unique and well-defined protocol of practice, in contrast with EVLT which presents multiple variants.

Results: The short-term postoperative clinical status was studied in two controlled randomized trials comparing RF therapy with classical surgery, including one study that used a quality of life questionnaire. The results, including return to normal activity and convalescence duration assessment, were more favourable after RF therapy. In terms of thromboembolic complications investigated by systematic ultrasound duplex examination, the two procedures presented an approximately equal success rate of 0.5%. Other postoperative complications were transient: RF was associated with sensory nerve complications like paresthesia, while pain was more pronounced after EVLT. Results were difficult to analyse in terms of varicose vein treatment. In terms of signs and symptoms, detailed results were available at the three-year follow up for RF therapy. The improvement was very significant compared with the preoperative status and roughly equivalent to that previously reported for classical surgery. Clinical results after EVLT are less documented. Haemodynamic results by duplex ultrasound examination are well documented for RF but less detailed for EVLT. In a single-centre study, vein obliteration after EVLT was 93.4% at the two-year follow up and 88% after RF in a multicentre study at the three-year follow up. Correlation between clinical and haemodynamic results was established for RF at the two-year follow up and showed a strong link between the clinical results and absence of reflux. Finally, cost estimation of the two techniques showed that the EVLT fibre is cheaper than the RF catheter, the situation being inverse for the generators. The global cost of the RF procedure (including convalescence) was compared with classical surgery in a study. The findings favour RF for active patients.

Conclusions: In the absence of long-term controlled results comparing classical surgery and sclerotherapy with endoluminal surgery, the latter method was proved to be less aggressive postoperatively and effective at mid-term.
Delusional discourse: An investigation comparing the spontaneous causal attributions of paranoid and non‐paranoid individuals
Authors: Lee David A. , Randall Fiona , Beattie Geoffrey , Bentall Richard P.
Published: November 2004

Research into the nature of attributional reasoning in paranoia has for the most part been restricted to questionnaire‐based approaches. This fails to address the issue of whether a distinctive attributional style underpins the everyday talk of paranoid individuals. This study aimed to investigate whether attributional models of paranoid delusions applied to spontaneous attributions generated in the discourse of 12 paranoid and 12 non‐paranoid speakers. Causal attributions for negative and positive life experiences were extracted from interview transcripts and rated using the Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations (CAVE) technique. It was found that, as a proportion, paranoids made more attributions for negative events that were of an external‐personal, stable and global nature (as attributional models would predict). They also made significantly more external‐personal attributions for negative events and, in one of two datasets, showed a more external mean CAVE rating for negative events than the non‐paranoid controls. This paper highlights important issues underlying the extraction of attributions from paranoid talk, and discusses the implications for attributional models of paranoia and future discourse‐based research in this area.
Satisfaction with a romantic relationship, depression, support and conflict
Authors: Cramer Duncan
Published: November 2004

A major aim of this study was to determine whether the association between support and conflict would be weaker when assessed in terms of a specific instance than in general and, if so, whether conflict as well as depression would mediate the association between support and satisfaction with a romantic relationship as suggested by Cutrona (1996). The Relationship Assessment Scale (Hendrick, 1988), the Revised SCL‐90 Depression Subscale (Derogatis, 1983) and four scales measuring conflict and support as typically and as last shown were completed by 76 female and 24 male college students. Because they were so highly correlated, the typical and the specific measures were combined to form a conflict and a support scale. There was a direct association between support and relationship satisfaction which was not mediated by either conflict or depression. These results indicate that support may play a stronger role in determining satisfaction with a romantic relationship than conflict, which has received the most attention.
Cognitive analytic therapy: Comparing two measures of improvement
Authors: Birtchnell John , Denman Chess , Okhai Farouk
Published: November 2004

A sample group of 49 patients began a course of cognitive analytic therapy and completed two questionnaires at the end of the first session. The 32 patients who completed the course completed the same two questionnaires at the penultimate session, and the 30 patients who attended a 3‐month follow‐up completed the questionnaires again then. The two questionnaires were the Person's Relating to Others Questionnaire (PROQ2) and the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE). There was a high positive correlation between the total scores of these two measures and between the CORE and two, three and four of the PROQ2 scales at the start of therapy, the end of therapy and at follow‐up respectively. By the end of therapy there were significant drops in scores on three of the eight PROQ2 scales and on the total score, and on the CORE. By follow‐up there were significant drops on four PROQ2 scales and the CORE, but only two of these were the same as at the end of therapy. There was no obvious explanation why some patients registered a greater drop on one questionnaire than on the other.
Rapid assessment of well‐being: The Short Depression‐Happiness Scale (SDHS)
Authors: Joseph Stephen , Linley P. Alex , Harwood Jake , Lewis Christopher Alan , McCollam Patrick
Published: November 2004

The purpose of this paper was: first, to develop the short six‐item form of the Depression‐Happiness Scale; and second, to examine evidence of reliability and validity for the short form. Three studies are presented. In the first study, principal components analysis is reported and used to select six items to compose the short form of the scale. In the second study, re‐analyses of data from three previous studies are presented which confirm that the short scale has good psychometric properties of internal consistency reliability, test — retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. In the third study, the short form is found to have a single component structure and convergent validity with measures of depression, happiness and personality.
A psycho‐educational intervention for depressed women: A qualitative analysis of the process
Authors: Lara Ma. Asunción , Navarro Claudia , Acevedo Maricarmen , Berenzon Shoshana , Mondragón Liliana , Rubí Norma Angélica
Published: November 2004

Yalom (1995) has stated that psycho‐educational interventions could be made more effective by incorporating a focus on the interpersonal process. A qualitative analysis is proposed to investigate the degree of fidelity with which a psycho‐educational intervention for women with depressive symptoms was delivered and to identify Yalom's significant therapeutic mechanisms operating in group therapy. The intervention consisted of six 2 two‐hour weekly sessions organized around educational material. Eight groups were conducted with 5 − 19 participants each. A qualitative analysis was undertaken based on Kvale's (1996) technique of ‘categorization of meanings’ for the transcribed registers of audiotaped recordings. The analysis led to the definition of five major group process categories: establishment of rules, educational exchange, experiential exchange, reflexive work designed to achieve cognitive and behavioural change, and limitations on the exchange process. It showed that the facilitators largely adhered to the goals of the intervention, its strategies and model, and that the main limitations concerned facilitators' and participants'speaking for over‐long periods of time and facilitators' failure to cover all the material due to lack of time. The subsequent analysis identified four of Yalom's categories: installation of hope, didactic instruction, catharsis, and universality. In support of Yalom's assertion, we concluded that this exercise was useful in that it highlighted important therapeutic factors that could be more purposefully manipulated in the future.
Guilt‐ and shame‐proneness and the grief of perinatal bereavement
Authors: Barr Peter
Published: November 2004

This longitudinal cohort study explored the relationship of guilt‐ and shame‐proneness to grief in women (N= 86) and men (N = 72) 1 month (‘early’) and 13 months (‘late’) after a stillbirth or neonatal death. Hierarchical regression showed that shame‐proneness explained a small but statistically significant proportion of the variance in early grief in women (9%) and men (19%), whereas guilt‐proneness did not contribute further to the variance in early grief. Conversely, shame‐proneness explained a statistically significant and substantial proportion of the variance in late grief in women (27%) and men (56%), and guilt‐proneness made a significant further contribution to the variance in women (21%) and men (11%). Overall, shame‐ and guilt‐proneness explained 45% of the variance in late grief in women and 63% of the variance in men. Moreover, early shame‐proneness predicted late grief in men. Personality guilt‐ and shame‐proneness showed important relationships with late grief in both women and men, but there were notable sex differences.
A p‐version, first order shear deformation, finite element for geometrically non‐linear vibration of curved beams
Authors: Ribeiro Pedro
Published: November 2004

A p‐version, hierarchical finite element for curved, moderately thick, elastic and isotropic beams is introduced. The convergence properties of the element are analysed and some results are compared with results published elsewhere or calculated using a commercial finite element package. It is verified that, with the proposed element, shear locking does not affect the computation of the natural frequencies and that low dimensional, accurate models are obtainable. Geometrically non‐linear vibrations due to finite deformations, which occur for harmonic excitations with frequencies close to the first three natural frequencies of vibration, are investigated using Newmark's method. The influence of the thickness, longitudinal inertia and curvature radius on the dynamic behaviour of curved beams are studied. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
AN ATOMIC BASIS OF CANCER — LANTHANIDE TRACE ELEMENT AS A TUMOR LOCALIZER
Authors: WEI CHAU-CHIN , WEI CHIH-SHANG , CHAI CHEE-YIN
Published: November 2004

An approach to define cancer is proposed and our work is reviewed. We have tried to localize (or mark) a malignant tumor from its benign environment by injecting a small amount of a lanthanide into a tumor-bearing nude mouse to see how a lanthanide can localize in a tumor. In order to see a contrast from its environment, we measured a trace element distribution in several organs or tissues of a nude mouse also. We have tried to enhance the effectiveness of a lanthanide with hematoporphyrin derivatives, and have extended our animal experiment to analyze an elemental distribution in human brain tumors. We have found the particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis a convenient and practical method for our purpose. A mathematical model for a human glioma growth is introduced and a dynamical model, a generalized predator prey model, is proposed. Some significant features of our findings in each topic are discussed in the respective section.
APPLICATION OF A CHARGE-DIVISION, POSITION-SENSITIVE PROPORTIONAL COUNTER TO HIGH-RESOLUTION PIXE MEASUREMENTS
Authors: HAMANAKA HIROMI , HASEGAWA KEN-ICHI , YAMAMOTO YASUHIRO
Published: November 2004

A charge-division, position-sensitive proportional counter with a carbon-fiber anode and its associated signal processor has been developed. This counter is very small in volume with a simple structure and vacuum proof. The spatial resolution of 0.36 mm was achieved under a gas pressure of 1.7×105 Pa. A correlation factor between the position and the channel number was measured to be 0.97, indicating good linearity of the system. The detector was combined with a crystal spectrometer in order to measure spectra of particle-induced characteristic X rays. Energy resolutions measured at Si Kα (1.74 keV) and Fe Kα (6.4 keV) X rays are 4 and 34 eV, respectively.
DATING ROCK VARNISHES BY THE CATION RATIO METHOD WITH PIXE, ICP, AND THE ELECTRON MICROPROBE
Authors: DORN RONALD I. , CAHILL THOMAS A. , ELDRED ROBERT A. , GILL THOMAS E. , KUSKO BRUCE H. , BACH ANDREW J. , ELLIOTT-FISK DEBORAH L.
Published: November 2004

The measurement of rock varnish cation-ratios [(K+Ca)/Ti] and barium is evaluated by analyzing the same varnish scrapings with PIXE, inductively coupled plasma, neutron activation and wavelength dispersive electron microprobe. Results among these different methods are generally similar for ratios, but absolute concentrations differ in part due to uncertainties associated with weighing small samples. Barium concentrations are typically less than 1 % by weight; higher concentrations can be found in varnishes with depressions eroded into the varnish by fungi and lichens, and later infilled with aeolian detritus often including barium sulfate. Since these infilled hollows are known to produce anomalous varnish cation ratios, high barium values can, therefore, be used as an indicator that a sample is inappropriate for cation-ratio dating. The glacial chronology at Pine Creek, California, is revised in light of new data and a better understanding of variables influencing varnish chemistry.
PERTURBATIVE SOLUTIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICAL PROBLEMS BY SYMBOLIC COMPUTATION: A REVIEW
Authors: SCOTT T. C. , MOORE R. A. , FEE G. J. , MONAGAN M. B. , LABAHN G. , GEDDES K. O.
Published: November 2004

It is shown that Symbolic Computation provides excellent tools for solving quantum mechanical problems by perturbation theory. The method presented herein solves for both the eigenfunctions and eigenenergies as power series in the order parameter where each coefficient of the perturbation series is obtained in closed form. The algorithms are expressed in the Maple symbolic computation system but can be implemented on other systems. This approach avoids the use of an infinite basis set and some of the complications of degenerate perturbation theory. It is general and can, in principle, be applied to many separable systems.
RECURSIVE SAMPLING OF PLANAR GRAPHS AND FRACTAL PROPERTIES OF A TWO-DIMENSIONAL QUANTUM GRAVITY
Authors: AGISHTEIN MICHAEL E. , MIGDAL ALEXANDER A.
Published: November 2004

We describe a new approach to the Monte-Carlo simulations of two-dimensional gravity. Standard dynamical triangulation technique was combined with results of direct enumeration of the cubic graphs. As a result we were able to build large (128K vertices) statistically independent random graphs directly. The quantitative correspondence between our results and those obtained by standard methods has been observed. The algorithm proved to be so efficient that we were able to conduct all the simulations, which usually require the most powerful computers, on an Iris workstation.

An opportunity to generate large random graphs allowed us to observe that the internal geometry of random surfaces is more complicated than simple fractals. External geometry also proved to be rather peculiar.
B-PHYSICS FROM ARGUS
Authors: DANILOV MICHAEL V.
Published: November 2004

Recent ARGUS results relevant to the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are reviewed.
PION ABSORPTION IN A SINGLE STEP ON THREE NUCLEONS IN He3 AND He4: A POSSIBLE SIGNAL FOR QUARK DEGREES OF FREEDOM IN NUCLEI
Authors: BARSHAY SAUL
Published: November 2004

We discuss a new mechanism by which pions are absorbed in a single-step process on three correlated nucleons in 3He and 4He, leading to three nucleons which share the pion energy comparably. The mechanism invokes quark degrees of freedom in nuclei, with a small probability of about 6% in He, but nevertheless leads to cross-sections of several millibarns. Comparison is made to recent experiments, and to conventional mechanisms.
UPPER LIMITS ON THE TOP QUARK MASS IN MODELS WITH NEW GAUGE BOSONS
Authors: RIZZO THOMAS G.
Published: November 2004

The experimental value of the ρ parameter is used to obtain an upper limit on the top-quark mass (mt) in models with extended gauge sectors. This limit is found to be generally stronger than that obtained from similar considerations in the Standard Model (SM). This bound, however, is shown to depend strongly on the particular extension of the usual SM gauge sector under consideration. Improved experimental lower limits on mt can also be used to rule out large regions of the parameter space of extended electroweak models.