bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Targeted Preoperative Autologous Blood Donation in Total Knee Arthroplasty Reduces the Need for Postoperative Transfusion
Authors: Bou Monsef Jad , Buckup Johannes , Mayman David , Marx Robert , Ranawat Amar , Boettner Friedrich
Published: August 2013

Background

Preoperative donation of autologous blood has been widely used to minimize the potential risk of allogeneic transfusions in total knee arthroplasty. A previous study from our center revealed that preoperative autologous donation reduces the allogeneic blood exposure for anemic patients but has no effect for non-anemic patients.

Questions/Purposes

The current study investigates the impact of a targeted blood donation protocol on overall transfusion rates and the incidence of allogeneic blood transfusions.

Methods

Prospectively, 372 patients undergoing 425 unilateral primary knee replacements were preoperatively screened by the Blood Preservation Center between 2009 and 2012. Anemic patients with a hemoglobin level less than 13.5 g/dL were advised to donate blood, while non-anemic patients did not donate.

Results

Non-anemic patients who did not donate blood required allogeneic blood transfusions in 5.9% of the patients. The overall rate of allogeneic transfusion was significantly lower for anemic patients who donated autologous blood (group A, 9%) than those who did not donate (group B, 33%; p < 0.001). Donating autologous blood did increase the overall transfusion rate of anemic patients to 0.84 per patient in group A compared to 0.41 per patient in group B ( p < 0.001).

Conclusion

This investigation confirms that abandoning preoperative autologous blood donation for non-anemic patients does not increase allogeneic blood transfusion rates but significantly lowers overall transfusion rates.
Active Fault Mapping: An Initiative towards Seismic Hazard Assessment in India
Authors: Verma Mithila , Bansal B. K.
Published: August 2013

Identification and characterization of active faults and deciphering their seismic potential are of vital importance in seismic hazard assessment of any region. Seismic vulnerability of India is well known as more than 60 % of its area lies in high hazard zones due to the presence of major active faults in its plate boundaries and continental interiors, which produced large earthquakes in the past and have potential to generate major earthquakes in future. The safety of critical establishments, like Power plants, Refinaries and other lifeline structures is a major concern in these areas and calls for a better characterization of these faults to help mitigate the impact of future earthquakes. The paper provides a brief overview of the work carried out in India on active fault research, its limitations and immediate priorities.
Integrated Mineral Magnetic and Lithologic Studies to Delineate Dynamic Modes of Depositional Conditions in the Leh Valley Basin, Ladakh Himalaya, India
Authors: Sangode S. J. , Rawat Suman , Meshram D. C. , Phadtare N. R. , Suresh N.
Published: August 2013

We present here lithofacies and mineral magnetic results from a ~50 m thick composite record of fluvial, lacustrine and aeolian facies within the Leh valley basin of Indus River in Ladakh Himalaya. Mineral magnetic studies decipher interplay of two contrasting sediment sources viz., the unimodal ferrimagnetic source derived from Ladakh batholithic glacial domain and mixed ferri- to antiferromagnetic source derived from Indus sedimentary sequence. The lithofacies variability expresses dynamic changes in the depositional regimes controlled by base level fluctuations that are governed by the interaction of basin fill conditions and the response to Late Quaternary climatic perturbations.

A three stage evolution of the Leh valley basin is proposed after comparison to other characteristic lithofacies changes within the valley as: (I) the basin under-fill conditions marked by fluvial and fluvio-lacustrine phase till ~24m (~64 Ka OSL age) above modern base level followed by (II) predominantly varved, glacio-lacustrine, basin overfill phase till 38m (~28 Ka) gradually passing into an aeolian phase; and (III) basin incision that began at the earliest Holocene warming. Advancement and retreat of glaciers from the transverse valleys, attributed to climatic oscillations, appears to have greatly controlled the basin-fill conditions in the Leh valley. The present approach demonstrates its larger scope in recording the Late Quaternary response of individual valley basins to delineate local and regional attributes of climate change in the Himalayan and Karakoram region.
Petrological and Geochemical Study of Serpentinised Peridotites from the Southern Part of Manipur Ophiolitic Complex, Northeast India
Authors: Singh N. Ibotombi , Devi L. Debala , Chanu TH. Yaiphalembi
Published: August 2013

The southern Manipur Ophiolitic Complex in the Indo-Myanmar Orogenic Belt, Northeast India comprises a set of serpentinised peridotites, pelagic sediments, podiform chromitites with minor mafic and felsic intrusives. Peridotites in the study area suffered various degrees of serpentinisation and also have been highly deformed and metamorphosed. Striations and slickenside surfaces are common features seen in these rocks indicating the effect of faulting or shearing due to tectonic movement. On the basis of mineralogy and modal composition these peridotites have been identified as serpentinised harzburgite, lherzolite, serpentinite with minor wehrlite. The serpentine minerals are mainly lizardite and chrysotile with sub-ordinate antigorite, whereas, pyroxenes are enstatite and diopside. The primary composition of Cr-spinels in these serpentinised peridotites are characterized by low SiO2 (<0.11 wt.%), Fe2O3 (0.02 to 2.32 wt.%), TiO2 (<0.15 wt.%), Cr# (0.13 to 0.23) and high Al# (0.74 to 0.86), Mg# (0.68 to 0.73). Olivine is relatively uniform in composition, ranges from Fo89.64 to Fo90.1. The mineralogical compositions and primary Cr-spinel chemistry of these peridotites are similar to Abyssal peridotites that formed in a mid-ocean ridge setting after low degree of partial melting. Thus, it supports that the mantle peridotites of the Manipur Ophiolitic Complex initially formed in a spreading regime.
Ichnological Analysis of Transgressive Marine Tongue in Prograding Deltaic System: Evidences from Ukra Hill Member, Western Kachchh, India
Authors: Desai Bhawanisingh G.
Published: August 2013

The Ukra Hill Member exposed only in Western part of Kachchh basin comprises of fossiliferous shales, limestones and glauconitic sandstones in between thick unfossiliferous sandstone. The present study documents abundance of trace fossil Teredolite, occurring as driftwood and bedload log ground as well as re-worked log ground from the basal part of the Ukra Hill Member. These Teredolite bearing horizons are underlain by coarse grained cross bedded sediment with monodominant Psilonichnus tubiformis, while abundant Gyrolithes cycloides along with Rhizocorallium irregulare, R. Jenense occurs in overlying horizons. Three ichnofabrics recognized within the Ukra Hill Member are inferred to represent near shore high energy conditions (Psilonichnus ichnofabric), transgressive condition with subsequent erosion (Teredolites Ichnofabric) and shelf environment (Gyrolithes- Rhizocorallium Ichnofabric). The Teredolite bearing horizons also occurs with abundant belemnites Neohibolithes ewaldi, which is considered to be index fossil for the Early Aptian sediments. Thus, based on the ichnofabric analysis, the basal part of the Ukra Hill Member represents an Early Aptian transgressive event in Kachchh basin.
Dissolved Trace Metals in the Shallow Aquifers of the Jia Bharali River Basin, North Brahmaputra Plain
Authors: Khound Nayan Jyoti , Phukon Parag , Bhattacharyya Krishna G.
Published: August 2013

The lower Jia Bharali catchment and adjoining areas in central part of North Brahmaputra Plain (NBP) is characterized by more than 800m thick Older and Younger Alluvium deposited by the west flowing Brahmaputra river and the south flowing trans Himalayan rivers. Unconfined, shallow alluvial aquifers of the area with a general southward flow are largely tapped for domestic use through numerous dug well attached with almost every household. Monitoring of 180 dug wells for two hydrological years show strong seasonal fluctuation of the groundwater table linked to the summer monsoon that brings more than 1500mm precipitation in the area between June-September. This study has presents the first ever systematic database on toxic trace elements viz., As, Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn from the shallow aquifers in north Brahmaputra plain based on water samples from 50 monitoring wells collected in both dry and wet seasons. The data was analysed with respect to WHO standards for drinking water and significantly, 2 % of the measurements show As in excess of the WHO limit while 60% of the samples in the wet season and as much as 90 % of the same in dry season have Cr content more than the WHO permissible limit. Pb concentration is above permissible limit of 0.05 mg/L in most of the dry season samples although 88 % of the rainy season samples show Pb concentration exceeding this limit. 34 % of the samples in the wet seasons and 86 % of the samples in the dry seasons have Mn above the permissible limit of 0.1 mg/L while in case of Ni, 56 % of the aquifers in the wet season and 72 % of the aquifers in the dry season show Ni content above the permissible limit of 0.02 mg/L. Zn contents of the aquifers are however very low throughout the year.
Chemical and Isotopic Compositions of Groundwater and Stream Water in a Heavy Agricultural Basin of Korea
Authors: Lee Jin-Yong , Lee Kwang-Sik , Park Youngyun , Choi Hyun-Mi , JO YUN-JU
Published: August 2013

The chemical and isotopic compositions of groundwater and stream water in the Haean basin, Korea, which have been intensively used for agricultural irrigation, were examined. The field parameters and chemical compositions were typical of relatively uncontaminated waters, except for the agricultural impact. The low EC levels indicated that the waters had not experienced any significant geochemical processes such as water-rock interaction and evaporation. The very similar chemical compositions and ionic ratios were also indicative of fast circulation and good hydraulic connection. The oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions of most of the samples in wet and dry seasons showed very similar range which indicated a single source for both waters without any significant geochemical alteration. However, in the wet season, evaporation trends were observed in some groundwaters because of inflow of irrigation return flow from a rice paddy field. The isotopes of both waters were affected by the altitude and amount of precipitation.
Facies Analysis and Depositional Environment of the Jurassic, Jumara Dome Sediments, Kachchh, Western India
Authors: Ahmad A. H. M. , Khan A. F. , Wasim S. M.
Published: August 2013

The study deals with the depositional environment of Jumara Dome sediments. The Jumara Dome is an important outcrop of Bathonian to Oxfordian sediments amongst the Kachchh Mainland exposures. On the basis of facies analysis three associations have been documented, namely, G-1 consisting of low energy facies comprising of cross-bedded sandstone, massive sandstone, grey shale and thin bedded sandstone, bioclastic - lithoclastic grainstone, bioclastic - lithoclastic packstone, microbioclastic packstone/ wackestone, bioturbated laminated wackestone to mudstone and pelagic lime mudstone; G-II consisting of moderate energy facies comprising of laminated sandstone and grapestone or agglutinated grainstone; G-III consisting of high energy facies comprising of interbedded gypsiferous shale and sandstone/ siltstone, oolitic grainstone to conglomerate and bioclastic grainstone. The facies associations reflect an ideal shallowing upward sequence representing slope, bioclast bar, lagoon and inner shelf. Presence of wide range of facies indicates that the rocks of the studied area were deposited during the fluctuating sea level, interrupted by the storms, in the shallow marine environment.
Features of the Japanese national dementia strategy in comparison with international dementia policies: How should a national dementia policy interact with the public health‐ and social‐care systems?
Authors: Nakanishi Miharu , Nakashima Taeko
Published: August 2013

Background

The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare of the Japanese national government announced a “Five‐Year Plan for Promotion of Measures Against Dementia (Orange Plan)” in September 2012. This article described features of the Japanese dementia strategy in comparison with international dementia policies.

Methods

An international comparative study was implemented on national dementia policies to seek suggestions for Japanese national strategy. The study consisted of a bibliographical survey, a field survey, and an online case vignette survey in several countries.

Results

The Japanese health‐ and social‐care system had multiple access points in the dementia care pathway, as did Australia, France, South Korea, and the Netherlands. Contrary to Japan, a simplified access point was observed in Denmark, England, and Sweden. The Orange Plan aimed to establish specific health‐care services, social‐care services, and the coordination of agencies for persons with dementia. However, fragmentation remains in the dementia care pathway.

Conclusion

The national government should examine fundamental revisions in health, social‐care services, and advocacy in joint initiatives with Alzheimer's Association Japan to improve the national dementia strategy.
Transition delay in a boundary layer flow using active control
Authors: Semeraro Onofrio , Bagheri Shervin , Brandt Luca , Henningson Dan S.
Published: August 2013

Active linear control is applied to delay the onset of laminar–turbulent transition in the boundary layer over a flat plate. The analysis is carried out by numerical simulations of the nonlinear, transitional regime. A three-dimensional, localized initial condition triggering Tollmien–Schlichting waves of finite amplitude is used to numerically simulate the transition to turbulence. Linear quadratic Gaussian controllers based on reduced-order models of the linearized Navier–Stokes equations are designed, where the wall sensors and the actuators are localized in space. A parametric analysis is carried out in the nonlinear regime, for different disturbance amplitudes, by investigating the effects of the actuation on the flow due to different distributions of the localized actuators along the spanwise direction, different sizes of the actuators and the effort of the controllers. We identify the range of parameters where the controllers are effective and highlight the limits of the device for high amplitudes and strong control action. Despite the fully linear control approach, it is shown that the device is effective in delaying the onset of laminar–turbulent transition in the presence of packets characterized by amplitudes $a\approx 1\hspace{0.167em} \% $ of the free stream velocity at the actuator location. Up to these amplitudes, it is found that a proper choice of the actuators positively affects the performance of the controller. For a transitional case, $a\approx 0. 20\hspace{0.167em} \% $, we show a transition delay of $\Delta {\mathit{Re}}_{x} = 3. 0\times 1{0}^{5} $.
Low-dimensional models for compressible temporally developing shear layers
Authors: Qawasmeh Bashar R. , Wei Mingjun
Published: August 2013

A methodology to achieve extremely-low-dimensional models for temporally developing shear layers is extended from incompressible flows to weakly compressible flows. The key idea is to first remove the slow variation (i.e. viscous growth of shear layers) through symmetry reduction, so that the model reduction using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD)-Galerkin projection in the symmetry-reduced space becomes more efficient. However, for the approach to work for compressible flows, thermodynamic variables need to be retained. We choose the isentropic Navier–Stokes equations for the simplicity and the availability of a well-defined inner product for total energy. To capture basic dynamics, the compressible low-dimensional model requires only two POD modes for each frequency. Thus, a two-mode model is capable of representing single-frequency dynamics such as vortex roll-up, and a four-mode model is capable of representing the nonlinear dynamics involving a fundamental frequency and its subharmonic, such as vortex pairing and merging. The compressible model shows similar behaviour and accuracy as the incompressible model. However, because of the consistency of the inner product defined for POD and for projection in the current compressible model, the orthogonality is kept and it results in simple formulation. More importantly, the inclusion of compressibility opens an entirely new avenue for the discussion of compressibility effect and possible description of aeroacoustics and thermodynamics. Finally, the model is extended to different flow parameters without additional numerical simulation. The extension of the compressible four-mode model includes different Mach numbers and Reynolds numbers. We can clearly observe the change in the nonlinear interaction of modes at two frequencies and the associated promotion or delay of vortex pairing by varying compressibility and viscosity. The dynamic response of the low-dimensional model to different flow parameters is consistent with the vortex dynamics observed in experiments and numerical simulation.
The effect of small viscosity and diffusivity on the marginal stability of stably stratified shear flows
Authors: Thorpe S. A. , Smyth W. D. , Li Lin
Published: August 2013

The effect of non-zero, but small, viscosity and diffusivity on the marginal stability of a stably stratified shear flow is examined by making perturbations around the neutral solution for an inviscid and non-diffusive flow. The results apply to turbulent flows in which horizontal and vertical turbulent transports of momentum and buoyancy are represented by eddy coefficients of viscosity and diffusivity that vary in the vertical ($z$) direction. General expressions are derived for the modified phase speed and the growth rate of small disturbances as a function of wavenumber. To first order in their coefficients, the effect on the phase speed of adding viscosity and diffusivity is zero. Growth rates are found for two mean flows when the horizontal or vertical coefficients of viscosity and diffusivity vary in $z$ in such a way that the rates can be found analytically. The first flow, denoted as a ‘Holmboe flow’, has a velocity and density interface: the mean horizontal velocity and the density are both proportional to $\tanh az$, where $a$ is proportional to the inverse of the interface thickness. The second, ‘Drazin flow’, has a similar velocity variation in $z$ but uniform density gradient. The analytical results compare favourably with numerical calculations. Small horizontal coefficients of viscosity and diffusivity may affect disturbances to the flow in opposite ways. Although the effect of uniform vertical coefficients of viscosity is to decrease the growth rates, and uniform vertical coefficients of diffusivity increase them, cases are found in which, with suitably chosen $z$ dependence, vertical coefficients of viscosity (or diffusivity) may cause a previously neutral disturbance to grow (or to diminish); viscosity may destabilize a stably stratified shear flow. The introduction of viscosity and diffusivity may consequently increase the critical Richardson number to a value exceeding $1/ 4$. While some patterns of behaviour are apparent, no simple rule appears to hold about whether flows that are neutral in the absence of these effects (viscosity or diffusivity) will be stabilized or destabilized when they are added. One such rule, namely our conjecture that viscosity is always stabilizing and that diffusivity is destabilizing, is explicitly refuted.
Trans-tensor tympani facial nerve decompression in traumatic facial nerve palsy
Authors: Jung J H , Hyun S M , Park H J , Yoon T H
Published: August 2013

Objective:

The surgical approaches previously reported for facial nerve decompression have focussed on achieving good exposure of the lateral or superior aspects of the geniculate ganglion. This report aims to describe a unique case of facial nerve decompression beneath the geniculate ganglion.

Patient:

A 30-year-old woman with right-sided facial palsy due to a temporal bone fracture.

Intervention:

Bony fragments at the base of the geniculate ganglion were removed via a trans-tensor tympani approach with extended posterior tympanotomy.

Results:

The patient's facial movement recovered successfully, without complications such as sensorineural hearing loss and conductive hearing loss.

Conclusion:

In rare cases requiring decompression of the facial nerve inferior to the perigeniculate area, the trans-tensor tympani approach should be considered as a valuable alternative option when surgical intervention is considered.
Control ofTaenia soliumtaeniasis/cysticercosis: past practices and new possibilities
Authors: LIGHTOWLERS MARSHALL W.
Published: August 2013

Neurocysticercosis continues to be a major health burden on humans living in many regions of the world, despite the availability of highly effective taeniacides and identification of the cause,Taenia solium, as being potentially eradicable. SeveralT. soliumcontrol trials have been undertaken, generally achieving limited success and none that has been fully documented has achieved what was demonstrated to be a sustainable level of disease control. Pigs act as intermediate hosts forT. soliumand two new control tools have become available for application in pigs – single-dose oxfendazole treatment of porcine cysticercosis and the TSOL18 vaccine. Three potential intervention scenarios for pigs are compared for control of cysticercosis, using either oxfendazole or vaccination. A control scenario involving vaccination plus oxfendazole treatment delivered at 4 monthly intervals was predicted to achieve the best outcome, with no pigs slaughtered at 12 months of age having viableT. soliumcysticerci. Now that new control tools are available, there are opportunities to concentrate research attention on evaluation of novel control scenarios leading to the implementation of effective and sustainable control programmes and a reduction in the global burden of neurocysticercosis.
A-RAIM and R-RAIM Performance using the Classic and MHSS Methods
Authors: Jiang Yiping , Wang Jinling
Published: August 2013

Two Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) architectures, Advanced RAIM (A-RAIM) and Relative RAIM (R-RAIM), are compared with two different RAIM algorithms, the Classic method and the Multiple Hypothesis Solution Separation (MHSS) method. The difference between A-RAIM and R-RAIM is in the positioning methods that produce different error models and projection matrices for integrity monitoring. The difference between RAIM algorithms lies in the methods of risk distribution. The influences of different positioning methods on integrity results are analysed in this paper via a generalized RAIM framework. Simulation results for the LPV-200 service with worldwide coverage show that the R-RAIM position domain method has the best results, while the differences between these methods decrease with application of the optimization method.
A Study of the Use of Sharia Law in Religious Arbitration in the United Kingdom and the Concerns That This Raises for Human Rights
Authors: Brechin Jessie
Published: August 2013

The use of Islamic norms in the determination of arbitration in England and Wales has become a source of great controversy. Concerns are raised for the human rights of vulnerable parties who may be pressured into arbitrations and who may not be treated fairly under the agreed rules of arbitration or by arbitrators themselves. The Arbitration Act 1996 limits the ability to appeal arbitration decisions and as such does not safeguard the rights of these parties. As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights the UK is under an obligation to uphold human rights standards domestically, and it is argued that the way in which arbitration on religious norms is currently regulated does not comply with this obligation. This article considers some of the possible adaptations or alterations that could rectify the situation, improving parties' experience of religious arbitration and ensuring that the system remains compatible with international human rights obligations.
Methodist Ministers: Employees or Office-holders?
Authors: Cranmer Frank
Published: August 2013

The issue of whether or not a minister of religion is an employee or an office-holder came before the Supreme Court in an action for unfair constructive dismissal against the Methodist Church. The Court held by a majority of four to one that, on the basis of the Church's Deed of Union and Standing Orders, the terms of engagement of ministers were not contractual for the purposes of employment law and that a minister's duties were not consensual. The judgment moderates somewhat the impact of the earlier judgment of the House of Lords in Percy v Board of National Mission of the Church of Scotland – and makes the employment status of ministers even more sensitive to the facts of the individual case than it was before.1
Off-pump snare technique for congenital left atrial appendage aneurysm
Authors: DiBardino Daniel J. , Aggarwal Avichal , Knudson Jarrod D.
Published: August 2013

Left atrial appendage aneurysm is an extremely rare anomaly and as such has been rarely imaged or seen intraoperatively with very little accumulated management experience. The available scant published literature stresses resection on cardiopulmonary bypass as the safest and by far the most commonly applied technique. We suggest a novel alternative imaging-guided management utilising an off-pump tourniquet snare technique under live transoesophageal echocardiography.
Hippocampal Volume and Memory and Learning Outcomes at 7 Years in Children Born Very Preterm
Authors: Omizzolo Cristina , Thompson Deanne K. , Scratch Shannon E. , Stargatt Robyn , Lee Katherine J. , Cheong Jeanie , Roberts Gehan , Doyle Lex W. , Anderson Peter J.
Published: August 2013

Using magnetic resonance imaging, this study compared hippocampal volume between 145 very preterm children and 34 children born full-term at 7 years of age. The relationship between hippocampal volume and memory and learning impairments at 7 years was also investigated. Manual hippocampal segmentation and subsequent three-dimensional volumetric analysis revealed reduced hippocampal volumes in very preterm children compared with term peers. However, this relationship did not remain after correcting for whole brain volume and neonatal brain abnormality. Contrary to expectations, hippocampal volume in the very preterm cohort was not related to memory and learning outcomes. Further research investigating the effects of very preterm birth on more extensive networks in the brain that support memory and learning in middle childhood is needed. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–11)
Exploring attitudes and opinions of radiation therapists in British Columbia towards advanced practice
Authors: Kinamore Cher
Published: August 2013

Introduction

Although the notion of advanced practice (AP) has been widely accepted and implemented in some countries, for example, the United Kingdom, in Canada it is has yet to be widely tested as a model of working. Currently it has been implemented and evaluated in Ontario, but this approach is not widespread across the country. To date in British Columbia (BC), there are no advanced practitioners and no research has been conducted regarding the opinions and attitudes of radiation therapists (RTs) in BC towards the implementation of AP. Understanding RTs attitudes and perceptions towards AP may be important when considering the acceptance and implementation of new roles. The research objectives were to explore the attitudes and opinions of RTs and establish what the term AP means to BC RTs, and also to discover what they consider to be benefits, and barriers to implementing AP.

Materials and methods

A quantitative approach was utilised and an on-line questionnaire was sent to 266 RTs that currently practice in BC. Likert and demographic questions were used to explore the definition of AP and ascertain opinions about the barriers and benefits of implementing AP in BC.

Results

A total of 183 questionnaires were completed for a response rate of 69%. The majority of respondents agreed with the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologies (CAMRT) and the literature's definition of AP. Cost, time, lack of support and training and issues of medical dominance were cited as barriers. Job satisfaction, autonomy, and increased recruitment and retention of staff were considered benefits.

Conclusions

Although RTs believe there are obstacles to be overcome regarding the adoption and implementation of AP, these are outweighed by the potential benefits such as enhanced patient care due to increased levels of professional knowledge and development that can lead to increased levels of job satisfaction. These are seen as important drivers for creating the AP role in BC.
A qualitative analysis of radiation therapy students’ professional placement journals
Authors: Findlay Naomi , Dempsey Shane E. , Warren-Forward Helen M.
Published: August 2013

Purpose

Student experience on clinical placement is not well captured with traditional program evaluation tools. This study aims to complete a qualitative analysis of the reflective clinical journals completed during professional placement by radiation therapy (RT) students in order to uncover the issues that affect students on placement and how these change as the student's progress through the program.

Materials and methods

A qualitative descriptive analysis (QDA) was undertaken on the descriptive content of student journals completed by 97 students over 3 consecutive years while undertaking professional placement in Radiation Oncology Treatment Centres within Australia. Two coders used a QDA sourcebook specifically designed for the research to independently analyse the descriptive content of the reflective journals for four main categories and 18 subcategories.

Results

The result revealed a statistically significant increased tendency to discuss clinical environment and a decreased tendency to discuss the patient, 92·9–12·5% (coder 1) and 85·7–18·8% (coder 2), as they progressed through the program.

Conclusions

The results of this study showed some similarities with studies completed in other health professions; however, the breadth of issues explored within the content of these RT student journals demonstrates the true diversity of the RT student experience on professional placement.
A multi-engine approach to answer-set programming
Authors: MARATEA MARCO , PULINA LUCA , RICCA FRANCESCO
Published: August 2013

Answer-set programming (ASP) is a truly declarative programming paradigm proposed in the area of non-monotonic reasoning and logic programming, which has been recently employed in many applications. The development of efficient ASP systems is, thus, crucial. Having in mind the task of improving the solving methods for ASP, there are two usual ways to reach this goal: (i) extending state-of-the-art techniques and ASP solvers or (ii) designing a new ASP solver from scratch. An alternative to these trends is to build on top of state-of-the-art solvers, and to apply machine learning techniques for choosing automatically the “best” available solver on a per-instance basis.

In this paper, we pursue this latter direction. We first define a set of cheap-to-compute syntactic features that characterize several aspects of ASP programs. Then, we apply classification methods that, given the features of the instances in atrainingset and the solvers' performance on these instances, inductively learn algorithm selection strategies to be applied to atestset. We report the results of a number of experiments considering solvers and different training and test sets of instances taken from the ones submitted to the “System Track” of the Third ASP Competition. Our analysis shows that by applying machine learning techniques to ASP solving, it is possible to obtain very robust performance: our approach can solve more instances compared with any solver that entered the Third ASP Competition.
Knockdown of specific host factors protects against influenza virus-induced cell death
Authors: Tran A T , Rahim M N , Ranadheera C , Kroeker A , Cortens J P , Opanubi K J , Wilkins J A , Coombs K M
Published: August 2013

Cell death is a characteristic consequence of cellular infection by influenza virus. Mounting evidence indicates the critical involvement of host-mediated cellular death pathways in promoting efficient influenza virus replication. Furthermore, it appears that many signaling pathways, such as NF-κB, formerly suspected to solely promote cell survival, can also be manipulated to induce cell death. Current understanding of the cell death pathways involved in influenza virus-mediated cytopathology and in virus replication is limited. This study was designed to identify host genes that are required for influenza-induced cell death. The approach was to perform genome-wide lentiviral-mediated human gene silencing in A549 cells and determine which genes could be silenced to provide resistance to influenza-induced cell death. The assay proved to be highly reproducible with 138 genes being identified in independent screens. The results were independently validated using siRNA to each of these candidates. Graded protection was observed in this screen with the silencing of any of 19 genes, each providing >85% protection. Three gene products, TNFSF13 (APRIL), TNFSF12-TNFSF13 (TWE-PRIL) and USP47, were selected because of the high levels of protection conferred by their silencing. Protein and mRNA silencing and protection from influenza-induced cell death was confirmed using multiple shRNA clones and siRNA, indicating the specificity of the effects. USP47 knockdown prevented proper viral entry into the host cell, whereas TNFSF12-13/TNFSF13 knockdown blocked a late stage in viral replication. This screening approach offers the means to identify a large number of potential candidates for the analysis of viral-induced cell death. These results may also have much broader applicability in defining regulatory mechanisms involved in cell survival.
Metaproteomics of cellulose methanisation under thermophilic conditions reveals a surprisingly high proteolytic activity
Authors: Lü Fan , Bize Ariane , Guillot Alain , Monnet Véronique , Madigou Céline , Chapleur Olivier , Mazéas Laurent , He Pinjing , Bouchez Théodore
Published: August 2013

Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth. Optimising energy recovery from this renewable but recalcitrant material is a key issue. The metaproteome expressed by thermophilic communities during cellulose anaerobic digestion was investigated in microcosms. By multiplying the analytical replicates (65 protein fractions analysed by MS/MS) and relying solely on public protein databases, more than 500 non-redundant protein functions were identified. The taxonomic community structure as inferred from the metaproteomic data set was in good overall agreement with 16S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing and fluorescent in situ hybridisation analyses. Numerous functions related to cellulose and hemicellulose hydrolysis and fermentation catalysed by bacteria related to Caldicellulosiruptor spp. and Clostridium thermocellum were retrieved, indicating their key role in the cellulose-degradation process and also suggesting their complementary action. Despite the abundance of acetate as a major fermentation product, key methanogenesis enzymes from the acetoclastic pathway were not detected. In contrast, enzymes from the hydrogenotrophic pathway affiliated to Methanothermobacter were almost exclusively identified for methanogenesis, suggesting a syntrophic acetate oxidation process coupled to hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Isotopic analyses confirmed the high dominance of the hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Very surprising was the identification of an abundant proteolytic activity from Coprothermobacter proteolyticus strains, probably acting as scavenger and/or predator performing proteolysis and fermentation. Metaproteomics thus appeared as an efficient tool to unravel and characterise metabolic networks as well as ecological interactions during methanisation bioprocesses. More generally, metaproteomics provides direct functional insights at a limited cost, and its attractiveness should increase in the future as sequence databases are growing exponentially.
Potential role of viruses in white plague coral disease
Authors: Soffer Nitzan , Brandt Marilyn E , Correa Adrienne M S , Smith Tyler B , Thurber Rebecca Vega
Published: August 2013

White plague (WP)-like diseases of tropical corals are implicated in reef decline worldwide, although their etiological cause is generally unknown. Studies thus far have focused on bacterial or eukaryotic pathogens as the source of these diseases; no studies have examined the role of viruses. Using a combination of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and 454 pyrosequencing, we compared 24 viral metagenomes generated from Montastraea annularis corals showing signs of WP-like disease and/or bleaching, control conspecific corals, and adjacent seawater. TEM was used for visual inspection of diseased coral tissue. No bacteria were visually identified within diseased coral tissues, but viral particles and sequence similarities to eukaryotic circular Rep-encoding single-stranded DNA viruses and their associated satellites (SCSDVs) were abundant in WP diseased tissues. In contrast, sequence similarities to SCSDVs were not found in any healthy coral tissues, suggesting SCSDVs might have a role in WP disease. Furthermore, Herpesviridae gene signatures dominated healthy tissues, corroborating reports that herpes-like viruses infect all corals. Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA virus (NCLDV) sequences, similar to those recently identified in cultures of Symbiodinium (the algal symbionts of corals), were most common in bleached corals. This finding further implicates that these NCLDV viruses may have a role in bleaching, as suggested in previous studies. This study determined that a specific group of viruses is associated with diseased Caribbean corals and highlights the potential for viral disease in regional coral reef decline.
Two-stage microbial community experimental design
Authors: Tickle Timothy L , Segata Nicola , Waldron Levi , Weingart Uri , Huttenhower Curtis
Published: August 2013

Microbial community samples can be efficiently surveyed in high throughput by sequencing markers such as the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Often, a collection of samples is then selected for subsequent metagenomic, metabolomic or other follow-up. Two-stage study design has long been used in ecology but has not yet been studied in-depth for high-throughput microbial community investigations. To avoid ad hoc sample selection, we developed and validated several purposive sample selection methods for two-stage studies (that is, biological criteria) targeting differing types of microbial communities. These methods select follow-up samples from large community surveys, with criteria including samples typical of the initially surveyed population, targeting specific microbial clades or rare species, maximizing diversity, representing extreme or deviant communities, or identifying communities distinct or discriminating among environment or host phenotypes. The accuracies of each sampling technique and their influences on the characteristics of the resulting selected microbial community were evaluated using both simulated and experimental data. Specifically, all criteria were able to identify samples whose properties were accurately retained in 318 paired 16S amplicon and whole-community metagenomic (follow-up) samples from the Human Microbiome Project. Some selection criteria resulted in follow-up samples that were strongly non-representative of the original survey population; diversity maximization particularly undersampled community configurations. Only selection of intentionally representative samples minimized differences in the selected sample set from the original microbial survey. An implementation is provided as the microPITA (Microbiomes: Picking Interesting Taxa for Analysis) software for two-stage study design of microbial communities.
Glutathione-triggered disassembly of isothermally responsive polymer nanoparticles obtained by nanoprecipitation of hydrophilic polymers
Authors: Phillips Daniel J. , Patterson Joseph P. , O'Reilly Rachel K. , Gibson Matthew I.
Published: August 2013

Nanoparticles obtained by the nanoprecipitation of responsive polymers are shown to specifically and rapidly disassemble into hydrophilic polymer chains in the presence of intracellular concentrations of glutathione.
Tighter low bound of achievable rate in downlink multiuser MIMO with imperfect CSIT
Authors: Li Shichao , Qiu Ling
Published: August 2013

One of the challenges to implementing downlink multiuser multiple‐input multiple‐output in practical systems is to overcome the detrimental impact of the imperfect channel state information at transmitter (CSIT). Researchers have derived a low bound to describe the imperfect CSIT's impact on the achievable rate. However, this low bound is not tight, especially when the quality of CSIT is poor. A tighter low bound using the exponential integral is proposed. A strict proof is given and the simulation results verify the tightness.
Compact dual‐band bandpass filter using single meander multimode DGS resonator
Authors: Jin X. , Zhang Z.‐H. , Wang L. , Guan B.‐R.
Published: August 2013

A novel dual‐band bandpass filter (BPF) with a dual‐plane structure is proposed. The dual‐plane structure consists of a pair of microstrip feed lines with capacitive source–load coupling on the top layer and a meander multimode defected ground structure resonator (MMDGSR) on the bottom layer. Using the intrinsic characteristics of the MMDGSR, two passbands and four transmission zeros can be generated simultaneously. An experimental dual‐band BPF operating at 2.45/5.8 GHz (WLAN application) has been designed and fabricated. This performance is verified by good agreement between the simulated and measured results.
All‐optical frequency chirp magnification based on four‐wave‐mixing for optical comb generation
Authors: Du Jiangbing , Yan Fangfang
Published: August 2013

An efficient optical comb generation method based on degenerated four‐wave‐mixing process in highly nonlinear fibre is demonstrated. The all‐optical processing of the frequency chirp is wavelength tunable and thus enables the capability of tunable chirp magnification. The magnification of the frequency chirp with a factor tunable from two to five has been demonstrated. An optical comb with 22 sub‐carriers has been obtained which refers to a bandwidth of 210 GHz, about five times the bandwidth of 40 GHz for the original signal.
Person re‐identification based on contextual characteristic
Authors: Leng Qingming , Hu Ruimin , Liang Chao , Wang Yimin
Published: August 2013

An efficient contextual characteristic is proposed for person re‐identification. Most current approaches are based on either constructing robust appearance descriptors or learning a distance metric for precise feature matching. However, re‐identifying results may be inaccurate and not robust due to appearance features variation caused by various environment changes and individual movement factors. In this reported work consideration is given to the introduction of the contextual characteristic that contains similarities of both k‐nearest and ḱ‐farthest neighbours between the probe and the gallery, and combines it with Mahalanobis distance for ranking every gallery image more accurately. The experimental result has validated the effectiveness of the proposed method on a challenging publicly available dataset.
Miniaturised slot antenna for biomedical applications
Authors: Xu Li‐Jie , Guo Yong‐Xin , Wu Wen
Published: August 2013

An implantable slot antenna with a miniaturised size of 139.7 mm3 (10 × 11 × 1.27 mm) for biomedical applications is proposed. Operating at the Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) band, miniaturisation of the antenna is realised by etching a meandered slot on the top metal with one end open. A microstrip line is utilised as excitation with a shorting connected to the radiator. In addition, two U‐shaped stubs are adopted to match the feeding impedance to 50 Ω. The antenna is simulated in a one‐layer skin model as well as in the arm of a human model and measured in skin‐mimicking tissue. Good agreements can be obtained and the measurement results show that a broad bandwidth of 28.3% (from 354 to 469 MHz) for |S11| less than − 10 dB can be achieved.
Note: High frequency vibration rejection using a linear shaft actuator-based image stabilizing device via vestibulo-ocular reflex adaptation control method
Authors: Koh Doo-Yeol , Kim Young-Kook , Kim Kyung-Soo , Kim Soohyun
Published: August 2013

In mobile robotics, obtaining stable image of a mounted camera is crucial for operating a mobile system to complete given tasks. This note presents the development of a high-speed image stabilizing device using linear shaft actuator, and a new image stabilization method inspired by human gaze stabilization process known as vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). In the proposed control, the reference is adaptively adjusted by the VOR adaptation control to reject residual vibration of a camera as the VOR gain converges to optimal state. Through experiments on a pneumatic vibrator, it will be shown that the proposed system is capable of stabilizing 10 Hz platform vibration, which shows potential applicability of the device to a high-speed mobile robot.
On the cooperative nature of the β-process in neat and binary glasses: A dielectric and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy study
Authors: Bock D. , Kahlau R. , Micko B. , Pötzschner B. , Schneider G. J. , Rössler E. A.
Published: August 2013

By means of dielectric as well as 2H and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) the component dynamics of the binary glass tripropyl phosphate (TPP)/polystyrene (PS/PS-d3) is selectively investigated for concentrations distributed over the full range. We study the secondary (β-) relaxation below Tg, which is found in all investigated samples containing TPP, but not in neat polystyrene. The dielectric spectrum of the β-process is described by an asymmetric distribution of activation energies, essentially not changing in the entire concentration regime; its most probable value is E/k ≅ 24 Tg. Persistence of the β-process is confirmed by 31P NMR Hahn-echo and spin-lattice relaxation experiments on TPP, which identify the nature of the β-process as being highly spatially hindered as found for other (neat) glasses studied previously, or re-investigated within this work. The corresponding 2H NMR experiments on PS-d3 confirm the absence of a β-process in neat PS-d3, but reveal a clear signature of a β-process in the mixture, i.e., polystyrene monomers perform essentially the same type of secondary relaxation as the TPP molecules. Yet, there are indications that some fractions of PS-d3 as well as TPP molecules become immobilized in the mixture in contrast to the case of neat glasses. We conclude that in a binary glass the β-process introduced by one component induces a highly similar motion in the second component, and this may be taken as an indication of its cooperative nature.