Carbon dioxide volume and intra-abdominal pressure determination before the creation of a pneumoperitoneum

The associated stress of an ostomy experience can threaten a patient's security and sense of control. One major stressor is the influence of uncertainty, when patients lack a clear perception of what will happen and are unable to define meaning or personally interpret information bombarding them from the complex health care system. Mishel's Uncertainty in Illness Theory offers the ET nurse a practical framework for understanding how the patient attaches meaning to illness cues and how the ET nurse can positively affect the desired adaptation process. Because the patient trusts the ET nurse's expertise and experience, the nurse can help the patient to understand the ostomy experience and perceive its structure. As a credible authority, the ET nurse has the expert power to facilitate patient coping and adaptation by minimizing ambiguity through individualized education, counseling, and support while simultaneously constructing a sense of order and predictability for both patient and family.     

Tuberculosis among Filipino patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

A retrospective review of the clinical records of 54 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and documented tuberculosis (TB) infection seen at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital was accomplished. There were 53 women and one man, with a mean age of 32.2 +/- 10 years and a total of 57 TB occurrences. Pulmonary involvement was recorded in 42 (74%): upper lungfield in 25, mid to lower lungfield in 7, and miliary pattern or diffuse infiltrates in 10. TB arthritis was noted in 8, osteomyelitis in 4, and soft tissue abscesses in 4. Central nervous system involvement consisted of brain abscesses (tuberculomas) in two and meningitis in one. Two patients each had TB lymphadenitis, genitourinary TB, ileocecal TB, and TB peritonitis. Hepatobiliary and cutaneous TB occurred in one patient each. Eight of 10 patients with disseminated or miliary TB died primarily of respiratory failure; six of these eight patients also had some form of extrapulmonary involvement. Using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, there were significant differences in the mean SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) and Severity of Disease Index (SDI) scores between those with limited TB (SLEDAI 24 +/- 7 SD; SDI 19 +/- 18 SD) versus those with extensive TB (SLEDAI 41 +/- 16 SD; SDI 36 +/- 21 SD), P < .05. There was no significant difference in the average daily prednisone dose (mg) between those with limited TB (25 +/- 17 SD) versus those with extensive TB (31 +/- 16 SD). The contributory role of tuberculous infection in the morbidity and mortality of patients with SLE must be emphasized, especially in areas endemic for TB.     

Vibration control study on a supertall building

Vibration control of a 288‐m supertall building with connective structure is studied in this work. Fluctuating wind time series of the structure in forward and reverse Y‐direction in a 10‐year frequency are simulated by modified auto‐regressive method (AR method) to perform wind vibration analysis, and six minor and major earthquake waves are provided by building designer to perform earthquake analysis. Three vibration control schemes with nonlinear viscous dampers are proposed to control structural dynamic responses under wind and earthquake excitations. The dynamic responses of the structure with the proposed control schemes in wind and earthquake excitations are investigated and their vibration control effects are analysed comparatively. The study results show that the modified AR method is reliable and effective for simulating the fluctuating wind exerted on the building. The excessive dynamic responses induced by wind and earthquake excitations can be controlled effectively by the proposed schemes. The peak acceleration of top storey can be reduced by almost 40% for the proposed control schemes in wind excitation. The elastic working state of the connective body between the high tower part and the low tower part in major earthquakes can also be ensured totally. So, the validity and feasibility of the proposed schemes in reducing structural vibration responses can be fully approved. Some suggestions about structural analysis and design under wind and earthquake excitations are proposed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolving feature selection

Data preprocessing is an indispensable step in effective data analysis. It prepares data for data mining and machine learning, which aim to turn data into business intelligence or knowledge. Feature selection is a preprocessing technique commonly used on high-dimensional data. Feature selection studies how to select a subset or list of attributes or variables that are used to construct models describing data. Its purposes include reducing dimensionality, removing irrelevant and redundant features, reducing the amount of data needed for learning, improving algorithms' predictive accuracy, and increasing the constructed models' comprehensibility. This article considers feature-selection overfitting with small-sample classifier design; feature selection for unlabeled data; variable selection using ensemble methods; minimum redundancy-maximum relevance feature selection; and biological relevance in feature selection for microarray data.     

DGJW4O钢结硬质合金退火处理的初探

DGJW40是一种采用新工艺制成的新型钢结硬质含金，本文对该合金的退火处理工艺及组织进行了研究。结果表明：采用适当的退火工艺，不仅可以降低合金的硬度，还可以较大程度地改善合金的原始态组织结构，由此提高机械加工性能。