Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in patients with ventriculoperitoneal shunts

A questionnaire to evaluate the needs of dialytic patients and the burden that these have on the health service and staff, was formulated by the nurses. The results showed how the patient's case history indicate, significantly, not only personal and subjective aspects (e.g. interpersonal relationships), but also how they construct their relationships with the hospital and its service (including the hospital staff). This opens up certain reflections on what role communication and information play within the hospital structure.     

Swords to plowshares: Shock wave applications to advanced lithography

xtreme ltra iolet ithography (EUVL) seeks to apply radiation in a wavelength region centered near 13 nm to produce microcircuits having feature sizes 0.1 micron or less. A critical requirement for the commercial application of this technology is the development of an economical, compact source of this radiation which is suitable for lithographic applications. A good candidate is a laser-plasma source, which is generated by the interaction of an intermediate intensity laser pulse (up to 10¹² W/cm²) with a metallic target. While such a source has radiative characteristics which satisfy the needs of an EUVL source, the debris generated during the laser-target interaction strikes at the economy of the source. Here, we review the use of concepts and computer modeling, originally developed for hypervelocity impact analysis, to study this problem.     

Preparation Polyelectrolyte Complexes of Chitosan-Polyacrylic Acid-Modified Iron Sand Leachate for Proton Exchange Membranes

ABSTRACT

Polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) of chitosan (Chi) and poly (acrylic acid) (PAA)-modified iron sand leachate were prepared and considered for applicability as a proton exchange membrane in fuel cells. Chi-PAA-hematite blended in different weight ratios and the resulting membranes were treated to enable the formation of the polyelectrolyte. The membranes of Chi-PAA polyblend were treated using iron sand leachate and reveal high ion exchange capacity (IEC), proton conductivity, water uptake, and good mechanical stability. The result of research indicated that the membrane with 40 wt% of Chi and 60 wt% of PAA blend which its conductivity of 6.10 × 10^?2 S cm^?1 was potentially for a proton exchange membrane in fuel cell applications.     

Geological Engineering,Civil Engineering,Traffic and Transportation Engineering Electrical capacitance volume tomography for measurement soil water infiltration in vessel experiments简

Electrical capacitance volume tomography （ECVT） is a recently-developed technique for real-time, non-invasive 3D monitoring of processes involving materials with strong contrasts in dielectric permittivity. This work is first application of the method to visualization of water flow in soil. We describe the principles behind the method, and then demonstrate its use with a simple laboratory infiltration experiment. 32 ECVT sensors were installed on the sides of an empty PVC column. Water was poured into the column at a constant rate, and ECVT data were collected every second. The column was then packed with dry sand and again supplied with water at a constant rate with data collected every second. Data were analyzed to give bulk average water contents, which proved consistent with the water supply rates. Data were also analyzed to give 3D images （216 voxels） allowing visualization of the water distribution during the experiments. Result of this work shows that water infiltration into the soil, wall flow, progress of the unstable wetting front and the final water distribution are clearly visible.     

Incorporating Software Visualization in the Design of Intelligent Diagnosis Systems for User Programming

Program diagnosis systems were developed to help users solve programming problems. By providing guidence on errors and misconceptions, these systems can help the users in writing programs and understanding their dynamic behavior. Features of software visualization which aim at providing visual and concrete depictions to the abstractions and operations of programs have also shown to be making programs more understandable. The main theme of this paper is to asses the usefulness of incorporating features of software visualization into the design of program diagnosis systems intended for novices. We report an empirical evaluation to assess the effectiveness of supporting visualization features during problem solving. The system used in the evaluation integrates visualzation and immediacy features and supports a model-tracing based approach to program diagnosis. Unlike other similar systems, our prototype system supports a more flexible style of interaction by increasing the grain size of diagnosis to a complete programming statement. The evaluation reported here seems to suggest that when supported with visualization features, systems for program diagnosis tend to be more effective in helping the users during problem solving.     

Warranty-based method for establishing reliability improvement targets

Modern day competition in manufacturing requires producers to rely heavily on continuous quality improvement methods to remain competitive. Reliability being a significant element of quality is the primary means for making design and process improvements. Current reliability allocation methods to establish improvement goals focus on cost reduction but do not necessarily give due consideration to the relative impact of component cost. A method is presented that uses warranty burden rates as a weighting factor to develop component improvement goals. A sample application is given to illustrate application of the method.     

ACTIVE vs. PASSIVE APPROACHES TO INTELLIGENT PROGRAM DIAGNOSIS

Much of research in intelligent programming systems for users has been polarized towards two opposite domains: active and passive approaches to diagnosis. The advocates of the active approach claim that much of the effectiveness of intelligent program systems is contributed to having strong control over the behavior of the users and providing immediate feedback on errors and misconceptions. Opponents of this approach, on the other hand, have argued that active approach through its interventionist style does not provide users the flexibility needed to observe their own behavior and discover their own errors, hence the users are not given an opportunity to selfdebug their solutions. This paper covers the engineering of intelligent program diagnosis systems and reports an empirical evaluation which attempts to get some insights into the superiority of active approach over passive approach or vice versa. The evaluation is conducted using our prototype system DISCOVER. The system provides a visualization-based environment which supports both active and passive modes of intelligent program diagnosis.     

Quasicrystalline Structures as Catalyst Precursors for Hydrogenation Reactions

The quasicrystalline structures of alloys with nominal compositions of Al₇₂Ni_13.4Co_14.6 and Al_72.3Ni_7.8Co_19.8 were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. For catalytic application, the solids were leached with an alkaline NaOH solution and tested at 373 K with two model reactions under atmospheric pressure: hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde and acetonitrile. The catalytic activities of these leached alloys were compared to that of a Raney nickel reference catalyst. Catalysts prepared from quasicrystals showed high catalytic activities and high selectivities towards butanal (in crotonaldehyde hydrogenation) and ethylamine (in acetonitrile hydrogenation).