Accelerating entry into supported employment for persons with severe psychiatric disabilities.

Tested the hypothesis that Ss with severe mental illnesses would achieve better vocational outcomes with an accelerated approach to supported employment (AASE), as compared to gradual approaches (GA) with prevocational training. 86 Ss (mean age 35.1 yrs) with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness, were randomly assigned to either the AASE, or the GA, which included a minimum of 4 mo prevocational training. Data were obtained on indicators of vocational outcomes over 2 yrs, and for a limited number of Ss (n=36), during the 4th yr of inception into the program. Initially, only 5% of Ss preferred prevocational training. After 1 yr, AASE Ss showed better outcomes for a range of indicators, including achievement of competitive employment, duration of employment and mean earnings. During the 4th yr, 59% of these Ss were competitively employed, as compared to only 6% of GA Ss. Rehabilitation is more effective using AASE than GA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical study on effect of bushen shengxue paste in treating renal anemia patients

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the therapeutical mechanism of Bushen Shengxue Paste (BSSXP) on anemia. METHODS: Chronic renal failure induced anemia patients were treated with BSSXP, clinical manifestation, anemia and renal function as indicators were observed in patients. The erythropoietin (EPO) and inhibition of colony-forming unit-erythrocyte (CFU-E) in patients' serum were determined by CFU-E in vitro. RESULTS: The patients' symptoms, renal function and anemia were improved after administration with BSSXP 1-2 course. EPO in serum was slightly increased. The inhibition of CFU-E in patient's serum was significantly decreased. CONCLUSIONS: BSSXP could improve the anemia degree, its mechanism might be through clearing the inhibitor of CFU-E in serum.     

Application of artificial neural networks in voltage stabilityassessment

Voltage stability problems have been one of the major concerns for electric utilities as a result of system heavy loading. This paper reports on an investigation on the application of ANNs in voltage stability assessment. A multilayer feedforward artificial neural network (ANN) with error backpropagation learning is proposed for calculation of voltage stability margins (VSM). Based on the energy method, a direct mapping relation between power system loading conditions and the VSMs is set up via the ANN. A systematic method for selecting the ANN's input variables was developed using sensitivity analysis. The effects of ANN's training pattern sensitivity problems were also studied by dividing system operating conditions into several loading levels based on sensitivity analysis. Extensive testing of the proposed ANN-based approach indicate its viability for power system voltage stability assessment. Simulation results on five test systems are reported in the paper     

A comparison of leaf-spring with aircushion trailer suspensions in the transport environment

Packaging engineers need to be able to accurately determine the forces present in the shipping environment in order to protect packaged goods. The purpose of this study was to determine the vertical vibration levels measured in three separate truck-trailer suspension systems; conventional leaf-spring, conventional air-ride and damaged air-ride. The main conclusion reached in this study is that the air-ride suspension when maintained gives lower power density (PD) levels on all road surfaces studied. A damaged air-ride suspension and leaf-spring suspension are very similar in response frequencies, although the damaged air-ride produces higher vibration levels at lower frequencies.     

Design of FIR linear phase filters with discrete coefficients usingHopfield neural networks

A novel method is presented for designing FIR linear phase filters with discrete coefficients using Hopfield neural networks. The proposed procedure is based on the minimisation of the energy function of the Hopfield neural network, and can produce a good solution to the design of FIR linear phase filters with discrete coefficients     

The bone marrow stromal environment is a major factor in myeloma cell resistance to dexamethasone

The expression of several markers of epithelial cell proliferation was analyzed to establish baseline data for future chemoprevention studies of oral premalignant lesions. Punch biopsies (n = 60) from three different sites of oral mucosa (bucca, lateral tongue, and the floor of the mouth) were obtained from 20 normal donors of both sexes. After formaldehyde fixation and paraffin embedding, immunohistochemistry was used to detect the proliferation markers Mib-1, cyclin D1, and centromere-associated protein CENP-F. Analysis of sections stained for the three markers showed similar patterns, i.e., a low labeling index (LI) in the basal layer and a high LI in the parabasal layer at all three intraoral sites. No proliferative activity was seen above the parabasal layer (superficial layer). All sites showed similar Mib-1 LI values for the proliferative markers. The tongue epithelium exhibited higher parabasal LIs of cyclin D1 and CENP-F than did the other two sites. No significant differences were detected between smokers and nonsmokers. The data from normal mucosa were compared with those from low (n = 30)- and high (n = 17)-grade dysplastic leukoplakias. The Mib-1 LI showed a very significant change, with a 9-fold increase in the basal layer LI in dysplastic leukoplakias. Cyclin D1 and CENP-F showed similar trends with increments of up to 7-fold in the basal layer of high-grade dysplasia. Although the proliferative activity of the parabasal layer was similar in normal and leukoplakic epithelia, the superficial layer showed a significant increment in proliferative activity mainly in high-grade leukoplakia. These studies suggest that proliferation markers in the basal and superficial cells of premalignant lesions may serve as surrogate end point biomarkers for chemoprevention trials.     

用过滤工艺全面提高铸锭质量

探讨了过滤器孔径对6063铝合金铸锭组织和性能的影响规律。在此基础上指出,在过滤工艺恰当时,不仅可以减少铸锭中的夹杂物,而且可以有效地防止裂纹、羽毛晶等连续铸锭中的常见缺陷。     

Removal of organics from water in an aeration basin : A mathematical model

A mathematical model was developed to describe the removal of volatile organic compounds from drinking water in aeration basins. The model was used to simulate removal under a range of expected treatment conditions using the Continuous Systems Modeling Program. Results indicated that temperature and air-to-water ratio are the major factors influencing the removal of chloroform from water in an aeration basin. Bubble diameter was a lesser factor while liquid residence time had the smallest effect of the variables examined.