A stochastic deconvolution method to reconstruct insulin secretionrate after a glucose stimulus

Insulin secretion rate (ISR) is not directly measurable in man but it can be reconstructed from C-peptide (CP) concentration measurements by solving an input estimation problem by deconvolution. The major difficulties posed by the estimation of ISR after a glucose stimulus, e.g., during an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT), are the ill-conditioning of the problem, the nonstationary pattern of the secretion rate, and the nonuniform/infrequent sampling schedule. In this work, a nonparametric method based on the classic Phillips-Tikhonov regularization approach is presented. The problem of nonuniform/infrequent sampling is addressed by a novel formulation of the regularization method which allows the estimation of quasi time-continuous input profiles. The input estimation problem is stated into a Bayesian context, where the a priori known nonstationary characteristics of ISR after the glucose stimulus are described by a stochastic model. Deconvolution is tackled by linear minimum variance estimation, thus allowing the derivation of new statistically based regularization criteria. Finally, a Monte-Carlo strategy is implemented to assess the uncertainty of the estimated ISR arising from CP measurement error and impulse response parameters uncertainty     

Zirconium recovery from zircaloy shavings

A chlorination process for recovering Zr from zircaloy scrap has been studied. Zircaloy chlorination was possible at temperatures as low as 220 °C. The scale microstructure and its effect on the zircaloy reactivity was analysed using Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. A solid-solid phase transformation took place into the oxide scale during the zircaloy chlorination. Zirconium, as ZrCl₄(g), was separated from the oxide scale and chlorides of Cr and Fe. The effect of the reaction temperature was also analysed.     

Occupational stress, social support, and the costs of health care.

Relationships among health care costs, social support, and occupational stress are investigated. Health care cost data were collected over two years for 260 working individuals. Multiple regression analyses were used to control for initial health care costs, age, and gender in predicting later costs; independent variables were stress, strain, social support, and their interactions. Main effects and interactions each accounted for significant proportions of the variance in various health care costs.     

Evaluating design metrics on large-scale software

Design-quality metrics that are being developed for predicting the potential quality and complexity of the system being developed are discussed. The goal of the metrics is to provide timely design information that can guide a developer in producing a higher quality product. The metrics were tested on projects developed in a university setting with client partners in industry. To further validate the metrics, they were applied to professionally developed systems to test their predictive qualities. The results of applying two design metrics and a composite metric to data from a large-scale industrial project are presented     

Isolated ovarian polyarteritis nodosa

Polyarteritis nodosa is a rare disorder and a form of systemic vasculitis. A 48 year-old female was admitted to the hospital because menorrhagia and pelvic pain in February 1993. The patient underwent exploratory laparotomy resulting in a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for myoma of uterus and a right adnexal cystic mass. Histopathologic examination revealed left ovarian periarteritis nodosa. Further investigation and 9 months follow-up failed to show any systemic involvement. To our knowledge the isolated ovarian polyarteritis nodosa is the first case in the literature.     

Fetal heart rate following coelocentesis

For psychological reasons, coelocentesis was performed in 20 women prior to termination of pregnancy, at 6-11 weeks of gestation. The fetal heart rate (FHR) was measured immediately before the procedure and at 1, 5, and 10 min afterward. There was no significant difference between FHR before coelocentesis compared to the values at 1 min (mean = 158, range 114-178; z = -0.629, P = 0.529), 5 min (mean = 160, range 121-179; z = -0.191, P = 0.848), or 10 min (mean 159, range 117-183; z = -0.214, P = 0.83) after the procedure. These findings suggest that coelocentesis does not have a major effect on the fetal cardiovascular system.     

Achieving synergy in collaborative education

Professional software engineering continues to face problems that involve large-scale (complex) software systems development. Such efforts typically require team collaboration over months, possibly years. Once implemented, the system must be maintained for sometimes decades. This development and maintenance life cycle requires not only technical knowledge and skills in software development, but also the knowledge and skills associated with software process. We believe the traditional computer science curriculum fails to consider this spectrum of needs. We also believe, however, that software engineering must use certain elements of the core knowledge and skills taught by computer scientists as its foundation. We describe lessons learned from the 10-year collaboration between Monmouth University and the Software Engineering Center of the US Army's CECOM (Communications Electronics Command). The center recruits electrical engineering and computer science graduates from academic institutions in the geographic regions surrounding its various installations to be part of its intern program; Monmouth University, in turn, incorporates the demands of the intern program in its Master of Science in software engineering curriculum