Health burden of road traffic accidents,an analysis of clinical data on disability and mortality exposure rates in Flanders and Brussels

Statistics on road traffic accidents (RTAs) mainly come from police records. The police reported RTA statistics however are known to have a large degree of under-registration, underestimating the true risk of being injured in traffic accidents. The use of medical based datasets can provide a more accurate estimate of the actual traffic accident health risk. Exposure-based rates of the actual burden from Flanders and Brussels were calculated, comparing differences between road user, age, gender and type of injury sustained. Minimal Clinical Data (MCD) was selected for the years 2003–2007, as well as data from the mortality statistics. Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) were calculated and put into perspective with the passenger kilometres travelled.     

Autism-friendly architecture from the outside in and the inside out: an explorative study based on autobiographies of autistic people

Researchers and designers each developed a particular vision on autism-friendly architecture. Because the basis of this vision is not always clear, questions arise about its meaning and value and about how it can be put to use. People with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum are central to these questions, yet risk to disappear from the picture. Refocusing the discourse about autism-friendly architecture on them was the aim of the explorative study reported here. Six autobiographies written by autistic (young) adults were analysed from two different viewpoints. First, concepts from design guidelines concerning autism-friendly architecture were confronted with fragments from these autobiographies. The second part of the analysis started from the autobiographies themselves. This analysis shows that concepts can be interpreted in multiple ways. They can reinforce but also counteract each other, thus asking for critical judgment. An open space is preferred by some autistic people because it affords having an overview, which increases predictability, and distancing oneself from others without being isolated. Others might like this space to be subdivided into several separate spaces, which affords a sense of structure or reduces sensory inputs present in one room. The six autobiographies provide a glimpse of autistic people’s world of experience. Analysing these is a first step in revealing what architecture can actually mean from their point of view. For them, the material environment has a prominent meaning that is, however, not always reducible to design guidelines. It offers them something to hold on to, relate to or structure their reality.     

Clinical evaluation of ultra-high-field MRI for three-dimensional visualisation of tumour size in uveal melanoma patients,with direct relevance to treatment planning

Objectives

To assess the tumour dimensions in uveal melanoma patients using 7-T ocular MRI and compare these values with conventional ultrasound imaging to provide improved information for treatment options.

Materials and methods

Ten uveal melanoma patients were examined on a 7-T MRI system using a custom-built eye coil and dedicated 3D scan sequences to minimise eye-motion-induced image artefacts. The maximum tumour prominence was estimated from the three-dimensional images and compared with the standard clinical evaluation from 2D ultrasound images.

Results

The MRI protocols resulted in high-resolution motion-free images of the eye in which the tumour and surrounding tissues could clearly be discriminated. For eight of the ten patients the MR images showed a slightly different value of tumour prominence (average 1.0 mm difference) compared to the ultrasound measurements, which can be attributed to the oblique cuts through the tumour made by the ultrasound. For two of these patients the more accurate results from the MR images changed the treatment plan, with the smaller tumour dimensions making them eligible for eye-preserving therapy.

Conclusion

High-field ocular MRI can yield a more accurate measurement of the tumour dimensions than conventional ultrasound, which can result in significant changes in the prescribed treatment.

     

Proof Pearl: The KeY to Correct and Stable Sorting

We discuss a proof of the correctness of two sorting algorithms: Counting sort and Radix sort. The semi-automated proof is formalized in the state-of-the-art theorem prover KeY.     

Au@Hg Nanoalloy Formation Through Direct Amalgamation: Structural,Spectroscopic, and Computational Evidence for Slow Nanoscale Diffusion

Dynamic core–shell nanoparticles have received increasing attention in recent years. This paper presents a detailed study of Au–Hg nanoalloys, whose composing elements show a large difference in cohesive energy. A simple method to prepare Au@Hg particles with precise control over the composition up to 15 atom% mercury is introduced, based on reacting a citrate stabilized gold sol with elemental mercury. Transmission electron microscopy shows an increase of particle size with increasing mercury content and, together with X‐ray powder diffraction, points towards the presence of a core–shell structure with a gold core surrounded by an Au–Hg solid solution layer. The amalgamation process is described by pseudo‐zero‐order reaction kinetics, which indicates slow dissolution of mercury in water as the rate determining step, followed by fast scavenging by nanoparticles in solution. Once adsorbed at the surface, slow diffusion of Hg into the particle lattice occurs, to a depth of ca. 3 nm, independent of Hg concentration. Discrete dipole approximation calculations relate the UV–vis spectra to the microscopic details of the nanoalloy structure. Segregation energies and metal distribution in the nanoalloys were modeled by density functional theory calculations. The results indicate slow metal interdiffusion at the nanoscale, which has important implications for synthetic methods aimed at core–shell particles.     

Combining predictions in pairwise classification: An optimal adaptive voting strategy and its relation to weighted voting

Weighted voting is the commonly used strategy for combining predictions in pairwise classification. Even though it shows good classification performance in practice, it is often criticized for lacking a sound theoretical justification. In this paper, we study the problem of combining predictions within a formal framework of label ranking and, under some model assumptions, derive a generalized voting strategy in which predictions are properly adapted according to the strengths of the corresponding base classifiers. We call this strategy adaptive voting and show that it is optimal in the sense of yielding a MAP prediction of the class label of a test instance. Moreover, we offer a theoretical justification for weighted voting by showing that it yields a good approximation of the optimal adaptive voting prediction. This result is further corroborated by empirical evidence from experiments with real and synthetic data sets showing that, even though adaptive voting is sometimes able to achieve consistent improvements, weighted voting is in general quite competitive, all the more in cases where the aforementioned model assumptions underlying adaptive voting are not met. In this sense, weighted voting appears to be a more robust aggregation strategy.     

MIMC reliability and electrical behavior defined by a physical layer property of the dielectric

Metal–insulator–metal capacitor (MIMC) reliability and electrical properties are defined by the TDDB lifetime, breakdown voltage and leakage current. In this article, the correlation is determined between these electrical properties and the physical and chemical properties of the SiN dielectric layer. It is demonstrated how a SiN dielectrics with a high refractive index have high Si content and show an increased initial leakage current. However, contradictory to the high leakage current, these dielectrics also show high lifetimes. It is shown that SiN dielectrics with a high Si content contain high numbers of charge trapping centers. Over time, a high concentration of trapped charges is build up to such an extend that the local electric field over the dielectric is significantly decreased. This results in the observed reliability improvement of the dielectric. The final intrinsic quality and reliability of MIMC capacitors can therefore be determined by measurable physical properties of the MIMC dielectric at the time of the deposition of this layer.     

The factorial structure of the Dutch translation of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems: A test of the long and short versions.

In this article, the authors study the factorial structure of 2 versions (64 items and 32 items) of the Dutch translation of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP; L. M. Horowitz, L. E. Alden, J. S. Wiggins, & A. L. Pincus, 2000) in both a clinical sample (n = 382) and a student sample (n = 287). First, the authors test whether both inventories are constituted by correlated uni-dimensional subscales, and they conclude that this is true only for the short version. Second, the authors study whether the correlations between the subscales follow a circumplex pattern. This proves to be true for both versions. Coefficients alpha and correlations between the IIP-64 and IIP-32 subscales are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enrichment of Anammox biomass from municipal activated sludge: experimental and modelling results

Anaerobic Ammonia Oxidising (Anammox) biomass was enriched from sludge collected at a municipal wastewater treatment plant, employing a Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR). After 60 days Anammox activity started to be detected, by consumption of stoichiometric amounts of NO₂^? and NH₄⁺ in the system. Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation analysis confirmed the increase of Anammox bacteria concentration with time. A final concentration of enriched biomass of 3–3.5 gVSS dm^?3 was obtained, showing a Specific Anammox Activity of 0.18 gNH₄⁺‐N gVSS^?1 d^?1 The reactor was able to treat nitrogen loading rates of up to 1.4 kgN m^?3 d^?1, achieving a removal efficiency of 82 %. On the other hand, the start‐up and operation of the Anammox SBR reactor were consequentially modelled with the Activated Sludge Model nr 1, extended for Anammox. The simulations predicted quite well the experimental data in relation to the concentrations of nitrogenous compounds and can be used to estimate the evolution of Anammox and heterotrophic biomass in the reactor. These simulations reveal that heterotrophs still remain in the system after the start‐up of the reactor and can protect the Anammox microorganisms from a negative effect of the oxygen. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Sustained nitrite accumulation in a membrane‐assisted bioreactor (MBR) for the treatment of ammonium‐rich wastewater

A membrane‐assisted bioreactor (MBR) for sustained nitrite accumulation is presented, treating a synthetic wastewater with total ammonium nitrogen (TAN) concentrations of 1 kg N m^?3 at a hydraulic retention time down to 1 day. Complete biomass retention was obtained by microfiltration with submerged hollow fibre membranes. A membrane flux up to 189.5 dm³ day^?1 m^?2 could be maintained at a suction pressure below 100 kPa. Nitrification was effectively blocked at the nitrite stage (nitritation), and nitrate concentration was less than 29 g N m^?3. The rate of aeration was reduced to obtain a mixture of ammonium and nitrite, and after adjusting this rate the TAN/NO₂‐N ratio in the reactor effluent was kept around unity, making it suitable for further treatment by anaerobic oxidation of ammonium with nitrite. After increasing again the rate of aeration, complete nitrification to nitrate recovered after 11 days. It is suggested that nitrite accumulation resulted from a combination of factors. First, the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in the reactor was always limited with concentrations below 0.1 g DO m^?3, thereby limiting nitrification and preventing significant nitrate formation. The latter is attributed to the fact that ammonium‐oxidising bacteria cope better with low DO concentrations than nitrite oxidisers. Second, the MBR was operated at a high ammonia concentration of 7–54 g N m^?3, resulting in ammonia inhibition of the nitrite‐oxidising microorganisms. Third, a temperature of 35 °C was reported to yield a higher maximum growth rate for ammonium‐oxidising bacteria than for nitrite‐oxidising bacteria. Nitrite oxidisers were always present in the MBR but were out‐competed under the indicated process conditions, which is reflected in low concentrations of nitrate. Oxygen limitation was shown to be the most important factor to sustain nitrite accumulation. Nevertheless, nitritation was possible at ambient temperature (22–24 °C), lower ammonia concentration (<7 g N m^?3) and when using raw nitrogenous wastewater containing some biodegradable carbon. Overall, application of the MBR for nitritation was shown to be a reliable technology. © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry