The basic principles of the synapses federated healthcare record server

The NIGHTINGALE Project (NIGHTINGALE Project: HC1109 DGXIII Contract and Technical Annex, European Commission, December 1995) which started on the 1st of January, 1996, after the approval of the European Commission, has a 36 month duration. It is essential in planning and implementing a strategy in training the nursing profession in using and applying healthcare information systems. NIGHTINGALE contributes towards the appropriate use of the developed telematics infrastructure across Europe by educating and training nurses in a harmonious way across Europe in the upcoming field of nursing informatics. NIGHTINGALE develops courseware material based on the curriculum development process using multimedia technologies. Computer based training software packages in nursing informatics will be the basis of the training material and the corresponding courses. CD-ROM based training and reference material will also be provided in the courses whereas the traditional booklets, teaching material and textbooks can also play an adequate role in training. NIGHTINGALE will disseminate all information and courseware material freely to all interested parties through the publications of the proceedings of the conferences, through the establishment of the world wide web (WWW) server in nursing informatics for Europe (http://www.dn.uoa.gr/nightingale), which will become a depository of nursing information knowledge across Europe as well as a dissemination node of nursing informatics throughout the European members states for the benefit and welfare of the European citizen.     

On the solubility of aluminum in cryolitic melts

The solubility of aluminum in NaF-AlF₃-Al₂O₃ melts with various additives was found to increase with increasing NaF/AlF₃ molar ratio (CR) and increasing temperature and to decrease with additions of A1₂O₃, CaF₂, MgF₂, and LiF to the melts. With the use of literature data for the activities of NaF and A1F₃ in cryolitic melts, three dissolution reaction models were found to give a good fit to the experimental solubility data. According to the most probable of these models the total concentration of dissolved aluminum (aluminum and sodium species) is given by c_Al = c_Na(diss) + c_AlF2- + c_Al2F3- + c_Al3F4- + c_Al4F5- In NaF rich melts, aluminum will dominantly dissolve as sodium, while at cryolite ratios commonly used in aluminum electrowinning (CR = 2.25 to 2.7) the AlF _-2 ^- -ion is the predominant dissolved metal species. Other species (A1₂F₃ ^-, A1₃F₄-, A1₄F₅-) were found to be of some significance only in melts with high excess A1F₃ (CR < 2).     

Storage life of frozen salmonoids Effect of light and packaging conditions on carotenoid oxidation and lipid oxidation

Summary The combined effect of oxygen transmission of packaging material and of exposure to light with different spectral distribution on the oxidative degradation of carotenoids and lipids in frozen salmonoids has been characterized in a storage experiment with steaks of rainbow trout. The degradation of the carotenoid astaxanthin, as followed by HPLC analysis and tristimulus colorimetric measurement, was sensitive to the radiant flux density of UV light and less sensitive to the oxygen transmission rate of the packaging material, in agreement with previous findings for photooxidation of carotenoids in food model systems. This is in contrast to the lipid oxidation, which was found to be dependent on the accessability of oxygen rather than on exposure to UV light. Formation of peroxides in the product culminated after 3 months of storage (up to 8.4 mEq kg^–1 oil), and preceded the formation of thiobarbituric-acid-reactive substances. The product in packaging material with a high oxygen transmission rate (60 cm³ m^–2 bar^–1 per 24 h) reached a level of approximately 5 mol malonaldhyde/kg^–1 product, when stored exposed to standard fluorescent light or fluorescent light with a high UV component. Rancid taste was not detected by sensory evaluation for any of the products after 6 months of storage, whereas a bitter taste was noted for the product exposed to UV light.

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Die Haltbarkeit von Lachsforellen Einfluß von Licht und Verpackung auf die Carotenoid- und Fettoxydation

Zusammenfassung Der kombinierte Effekt von Sauerstoffdurchgang durch Verpackungsmaterial und der Lichteinwirkung verschiedener spektraler Verteilung auf den oxidativen Abbau der Carotinoide und Fette in gefrorenen Lachsforellen wurde in einem Lagerungsversuch untersucht. Der Abbau des Carotenoids Astaxanthin wurde mit HPLC undTristimulus-Calorimetrie beobachtet, und war empfindlich gegenüber UV-Licht und weniger empfindlich gegenüber der Sauerstoffdurchlässigkeit der Verpackung, was mit früheren Ergebnissen für Photooxidation der Carotinoide in Modellsystemen übereinstimmt. Dies widerspricht der Fettoxidation, die mehr von Sauerstoffzugang abhängig ist als von der Entwicklung des UV-Lichtes. Die Bildung von Peroxiden des Produktes kuliminierte nach 3monatiger Lagerung (bis 8,4 meq/kg Öl) und ging der Bildung von Thiobarbitursäure-aktiven Substanzen voraus. Das Produkt im Material mit hohem Sauerstoffdurchgang (60 cm³ m^–2 bar^–1 pro 24 h), das bei normalen fluorescierendem Licht oder bei fluorescierendem Licht mit hohem UV-Anteil aufbewahrt wurde, erreichte einen TBS-Wert von ungefähr 5 mol Malonaldehyd/kg Fleisch. Ein ranziger Geschmack wurde durch sensorische Bewertung nach 6monatiger Lagerung nicht erkannt, wohl aber ein bitterer Geschmack bei dem UV-Licht ausgesetzten Proben.

     

Passivation of the aluminium cathode during deposition of aluminium from aluminium chloride-sodium chloride melts

The kinetics of aluminium deposition from NaCl-AlCl₃ melts (c_AlCl3 < 10 mol%) contained in alumina crucibles was studied by linear sweep voltammetry and potential step amperometry at temperatures around 820°C. At low concentrations (c_AlCl3 < 0.4 mol%) the reduction of AlCl₃ on liquid aluminium has been found to be diffusion controlled. At higher concentrations a passivation of the aluminium electrode was observed during the deposition reaction. The passivation appears to be caused by precipitation of alumina from supersaturated melt in the diffusion layer at the aluminium cathode.     

What you get is what you see: revisiting the evaluator effect in usability tests

Usability evaluation is essential to user-centred design; yet, evaluators who analyse the same usability test sessions have been found to identify substantially different sets of usability problems. We revisit this evaluator effect by having 19 experienced usability professionals analyse video-recorded test sessions with five users. Nine participants analysed moderated sessions; 10 participants analysed unmoderated sessions. For the moderated sessions, participants reported an average of 33% of the problems reported by all nine of these participants and 50% of the subset of problems reported as critical or serious by at least one participant. For the unmoderated sessions, the percentages were 32% and 40%. Thus, the evaluator effect was similar for moderated and unmoderated sessions, and it was substantial for the full set of problems and still present for the most severe problems. In addition, participants disagreed in their severity ratings. As much as 24% (moderated) and 30% (unmoderated) of the problems reported by multiple participants were rated as critical by one participant and minor by another. The majority of the participants perceived an evaluator effect when merging their individual findings into group evaluations. We discuss reasons for the evaluator effect and recommend ways of managing it.     

Engineering Analysis and Design with ALE-VMS and Space–Time Methods

Flow problems with moving boundaries and interfaces include fluid–structure interaction (FSI) and a number of other classes of problems, have an important place in engineering analysis and design, and offer some formidable computational challenges. Bringing solution and analysis to them motivated the Deforming-Spatial-Domain/Stabilized Space–Time (DSD/SST) method and also the variational multiscale version of the Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method (ALE-VMS). Since their inception, these two methods and their improved versions have been applied to a diverse set of challenging problems with a common core computational technology need. The classes of problems solved include free-surface and two-fluid flows, fluid–object and fluid–particle interaction, FSI, and flows with solid surfaces in fast, linear or rotational relative motion. Some of the most challenging FSI problems, including parachute FSI, wind-turbine FSI and arterial FSI, are being solved and analyzed with the DSD/SST and ALE-VMS methods as core technologies. Better accuracy and improved turbulence modeling were brought with the recently-introduced VMS version of the DSD/SST method, which is called DSD/SST-VMST (also ST-VMS). In specific classes of problems, such as parachute FSI, arterial FSI, ship hydrodynamics, fluid–object interaction, aerodynamics of flapping wings, and wind-turbine aerodynamics and FSI, the scope and accuracy of the FSI modeling were increased with the special ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques targeting each of those classes of problems. This article provides an overview of the core ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques, their recent versions, and the special ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques. It also provides examples of challenging problems solved and analyzed in parachute FSI, arterial FSI, ship hydrodynamics, aerodynamics of flapping wings, wind-turbine aerodynamics, and bridge-deck aerodynamics and vortex-induced vibrations.     

On the effect of peroxisomal β-oxidation and carnitine palmitoyltransferase activity by eicosapentaenoic acid in liver and heart from rats

Repeated administration of highly purified eicosapentaenoic acid (as ethyl ester) resulted in a decrease in plasma triglycerides and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. This was accompanied by a stimulation in the activities of carnitine palmitoyltransferase, fatty acyl-CoA oxidase and peroxisomal β-oxidation in the liver. The results suggest that the triglyceride-lowering effect observed with eicosapentaenoic acid may be due to a reduced supply of fatty acids for hepatic triglyceride synthesis because of increased fatty acid oxidation. Eicosapentaenoic acid feeding marginally affected the triglyceride content of heart and mitochondrial and peroxisomal enzyme activities.     

3D interactive topology optimization on hand-held devices

This educational paper describes the implementation aspects, user interface design considerations and workflow potential of the recently published TopOpt 3D App. The app solves the standard minimum compliance problem in 3D and allows the user to change design settings interactively at any point in time during the optimization. Apart from its educational nature, the app may point towards future ways of performing industrial design. Instead of the usual geometrize, then model and optimize approach, the geometry now automatically adapts to the varying boundary and loading conditions. The app is freely available for iOS at Apple’s App Store and at http://www.topopt.dtu.dk/TopOpt3D for Windows and OSX.     

Gaussian Mixture Kalman Predictive Coding of Line Spectral Frequencies

Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based predictive coding of line spectral frequencies (LSFs) has gained wide acceptance. In such coders, each mixture of a GMM can be interpreted as defining a linear predictive transform coder. In this paper, we use Kalman filtering principles to model each of these linear predictive transform coders to present GMM Kalman predictive coding. In particular, we show how suitable modeling of quantization noise leads to an adaptive a posteriori GMM that defines a signal-adaptive predictive coder that provides improved coding of LSFs in comparison with the baseline recursive GMM predictive coder. Moreover, we show how running the GMM Kalman predictive coders to convergence can be used to design a stationary GMM Kalman predictive coding system which again provides improved coding of LSFs but now with only a modest increase in run-time complexity over the baseline. In packet loss conditions, this stationary GMM Kalman predictive coder provides much better performance than the recursive GMM predictive coder, and in fact has comparable mean performance to a memoryless GMM coder. Finally, we illustrate how one can utilize Kalman filtering principles to design a postfilter which enhances decoded vectors from a recursive GMM predictive coder without any modifications to the encoding process.