Inpatient care or outplacement: which is better for the psychiatric medically infirm patient?

Eighty-four geriatirc ward patients were randomly assigned to groups targeted for outplacement planning or inpatient care. During the following year, half of the former were placed in community settings while nearly all of the latter remained in the hospital. Neither the physical health, level of self-care, or psychiatric condition ratings of the two groups changed differentially over that time. However, the mean Morale Inventory score of the outplacement sample improved while that of the in-patient group remained static. Additional analyses were run between three groups - outplacement planning subjects who were released, those who were not released, and inpatient planning men who were not released. These results confirmed those of the first analyses; the only significant difference appeared on the Morale Inventory, the patients who left showing more improvement than the other two groups. The results argue for an increased emphasis on outplacement programs among geriatric patients.     

Attenuation and Cross-Polarization Measurements at 11 GHz

Measurements of linear cross polarization and attenuation on a terrestrial link in the U.K. are reported and correlated with rainfall information. The cross polarization measured during rainfall is compared with theoretically predicted values and monthly cross-polar statistics are presented for a 16-month period.     

Slant-path microwave radio propagation through distorted raindrops

Attenuation and phase coefficients are evaluated for microwave radio propagation through oblate spheroidal raindrops on slant radio paths. From these coefficients, it is evident that the resultant crosspolarisation for linearly or circularly polarised waves should be significantly less on satellite radio paths than on horizontal radio paths.     

Effective numerical treatment of boundary integral equations: A formulation for three-dimensional elastostatics

The field equations of three-dimensional elastostatics are transformed to boundary integral equations. The elastic body is divided into subregions, and the surface and interfaces are represented by quadrilateral and triangular elements with quadratic variation of geometry and linear, quadratic or cubic variation of displacement and traction with respect to intrinsic co-ordinates. The integral equation is discretized for each subregion, and a system of banded form obtained. For the integration of kernel-shape function products, Gaussian quadrature formulae are chosen according to upper bounds for error in terms of derivatives of the integrands. Use of the integral formulation is illustrated by the analysis of a prestressed concrete nuclear reactor pressure vessel.     

Interrelationships of several process-reactive measures.

94 schizophrenic patients served as Ss. 8 previously used and potential process-reactive measures were intercorrelated and factored by the principal-factor solution. 2 factors were rotated. The 1st factor, consisting of marital status and the Philips, Elgin, and Ullmann-Giovannoni scales, consisted of traditional process-reactive measures. The variables making up the 2nd factor do not appear to be appropriate process-reactive indices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sonification supports eyes-free respiratory monitoring and task time-sharing

Three experiments explored the effectiveness of continuous auditory displays, or sonifications, for conveying information about a simulated anesthetized patient's respiration. Experiment 1 established an effective respiratory sonification. Experiment 2 showed an effect of expertise in the use of respiratory sonification and revealed that some apparent differences in sonification effectiveness could be accounted for by response bias. Experiment 3 showed that sonification helps anesthesiologists to maintain high levels of awareness of the simulated patient's state while performing other tasks more effectively than when relying upon visual monitoring of the simulated patient state. Overall, sonification of patient physiology beyond traditional pulse oximetry appears to be a viable and useful adjunct to visual monitors. Actual and potential applications of this research include monitoring in a wide variety of busy critical care contexts.     

An interior-point sequential approximate optimization methodology

The use of optimization in a simulation-based design environment has become a common trend in industry today. Computer simulation tools are commonplace in many engineering disciplines, providing the designers with tools to evaluate a designs performance without building a physical prototype. This has triggered the development of optimization techniques suitable for dealing with such simulations. One of these approaches is known as sequential approximate optimization. In sequential approximate minimization a sequence of optimizations are performed over local response surface approximations of the system. This paper details the development of an interior-point approach for trust-region-managed sequential approximate optimization. The interior-point approach will ensure that approximate feasibility is maintained throughout the optimization process. This facilitates the delivery of a usable design at each iteration when subject to reduced design cycle time constraints. In order to deal with infeasible starting points, homotopy methods are used to relax constraints and push designs toward feasibility. Results of application studies are presented, illustrating the applicability of the proposed algorithm.