OWL‐based acquisition and editing of computer‐interpretable guidelines with the CompGuide editor

Computer‐Interpretable Guidelines (CIGs) are the dominant medium for the delivery of clinical decision support, given the evidence‐based nature of their source material. Therefore, these machine‐readable versions have the ability to improve practitioner performance and conformance to standards, with availability at the point and time of care. The formalisation of Clinical Practice Guideline knowledge in a machine‐readable format is a crucial task to make it suitable for the integration in Clinical Decision Support Systems. However, the current tools for this purpose reveal shortcomings with respect to their ease of use and the support offered during CIG acquisition and editing. In this work, we characterise the current landscape of CIG acquisition tools based on the properties of guideline visualisation, organisation, simplicity, automation, manipulation of knowledge elements, and guideline storage and dissemination. Additionally, we describe the CompGuide Editor, a tool for the acquisition of CIGs in the CompGuide model for Clinical Practice Guidelines that also allows the editing of previously encoded guidelines. The Editor guides the users throughout the process of guideline encoding and does not require proficiency in any programming language. The features of the CIG encoding process are revealed through a comparison with already established tools for CIG acquisition.     

Inferring kinetic dissolution of NaCl in aqueous glycol solution using a low-cost apparatus and population balance model

An experimental methodology for inferring brine dissolution rate in monoethylene glycol (MEG) solutions at different temperatures using a webcam combined with a mathematical model is presented. The measurement system is designed to track the RGB (red, green, and blue) colour variations during the dissolution process. A dynamic model augmented with the population balance equation is applied to describe the dissolution process. Moreover, the dissolution rate is consistently related to the temperature and MEG concentration through the driving force based on the Gibbs energy and chemical affinity. The applied low-cost measurement apparatus proved to be a useful resource for tracking the dissolution dynamics in a wide range of undersaturation.     

4-bit adder-accumulator at 41-GHz clock frequency in InP DHBT technology

A 41-GHz 4-b adder-accumulator test circuit implemented in InP double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) technology using 624 transistors is reported. High clock rates are obtained by combining the logic functions into pipelined latches. The adder-accumulator contains a single-level parallel-gated carry circuit that is used as a step toward reduced power consumption. The carry circuit has a maximum clock frequency of 55 GHz. The accumulator architecture employs modular, pipelined 2-b adders and is cascadable to 2 N-bits. The test circuit includes a 4-b digital to analog converter (DAC) that facilitates demonstration of high-speed operation.     

Time Decay of the Activity of the Reduction Reaction of NO by CO on a Pd/Al2O3 Catalyst

An experimental study is made of the time decay of activity of the CO–NO reaction on a Pd/Al₂O₃ looking at the effect on reaction order and apparent activation energy. The optimum kinetics parameters fitting the steady state data at moderate pressures are determined. The time decay curves are analyzed through various catalyst deactivation models.     

Disc filtration for separation of flocs from a moving bed bio-film reactor.

A Discfilter with 10 and 18 microm filter openings, respectively, was placed in parallel to a flotation plant for separation of biological flocs from a post-denitrifying Kaldnes Moving Bed Process, the last treatment step at the municipal wastewater treatment plant at Sj?unda, Malm?, Sweden. The effluent concentrations from the 10 and 18 microm filter were 2-5 and 2-8 mg SS L(-1), respectively, which is comparable to, or better than, the flotation plant. Comparison with experiences from activated sludge plants shows that the Discfilter works especially well after the Kaldnes process. Particle size distribution (PSD) studies show that particles larger than the filter openings of 10 and 18 microm are separated with approximately 90% efficiency, whereas most of the smaller particles pass the filter. This fact indicates that the major particle separation mechanism is physical blocking. These findings point to the possibility of improving the prediction of the separation efficiency by combining measurements of turbidity and suspended solids with particle size analysis.     

Transmission Fiber Chromatic Dispersion Dependence on Temperature: Implications on 40 Gb/s Performance

In this letter, we will evaluate the performance degradation of a 40 km high‐speed (40 Gb/s) optical system, induced by optical fiber variations of the chromatic dispersion induced by temperature changes. The chromatic dispersion temperature sensitivity will be estimated based on the signal quality parameters.