The pediatric medical-psychiatric unit in a psychiatric hospital

Interest in the development of pediatric medical-psychiatric units continues to grow, driven by clinical, financial, and interdisciplinary considerations. While virtually all of the pediatric medical-psychiatric units reported in the literature to date have arisen in the pediatric setting, there are considerations that may encourage the development of such programs in the psychiatric setting. The authors report on the development and characteristics of a pediatric medical-psychiatric specialty inpatient unit developed in a psychiatric hospital. Advantages and disadvantages of the psychiatric hospital setting are considered in light of cumulative experience.     

Hybrid 3D Printing of Soft Electronics

Hybrid 3D printing is a new method for producing soft electronics that combines direct ink writing of conductive and dielectric elastomeric materials with automated pick‐and‐place of surface mount electronic components within an integrated additive manufacturing platform. Using this approach, insulating matrix and conductive electrode inks are directly printed in specific layouts. Passive and active electrical components are then integrated to produce the desired electronic circuitry by using an empty nozzle (in vacuum‐on mode) to pick up individual components, place them onto the substrate, and then deposit them (in vacuum‐off mode) in the desired location. The components are then interconnected via printed conductive traces to yield soft electronic devices that may find potential application in wearable electronics, soft robotics, and biomedical devices.     

Architected Lattices with High Stiffness and Toughness via Multicore–Shell 3D Printing

The ability to create architected materials that possess both high stiffness and toughness remains an elusive goal, since these properties are often mutually exclusive. Natural materials, such as bone, overcome such limitations by combining different toughening mechanisms across multiple length scales. Here, a new method for creating architected lattices composed of core–shell struts that are both stiff and tough is reported. Specifically, these lattices contain orthotropic struts with flexible epoxy core–brittle epoxy shell motifs in the absence and presence of an elastomeric silicone interfacial layer, which are fabricated by a multicore–shell, 3D printing technique. It is found that architected lattices produced with a flexible core‐elastomeric interface‐brittle shell motif exhibit both high stiffness and toughness.     

Reconsideration of Azimuth Ambiguities in SAR

The traditional method of specifying and controlling azimuth ambiguities in SAR is through integrated energy balance measures. However, the most frequently observed azimuth ambiguities arise from ensembles of strong point reflectors in the principal sidelobes of the antenna, which in turn are aliased into the processed Doppler bandwidth by the radar PRF. This paper considers the dependence of these ambiguities on radar wavelength and PRF. It is shown that such ambiguous image elements are strengthened in proportion to ? 2 and PRF-1. The theoretical structure is based on orbital SAR geometry, including Earth rotation. The work is applied to a SIR-B L-band radar scene in which azimuth ambiguities are clearly observed. The level and spatial position of these ambiguities are measured in the digital image. The results are extrapolated to higher frequency radars such as ERS-1 and Radarsat. It is concluded that for these C-band radars the point azimuth ambiguity restraint is more relevant (and more binding) than the traditional energy balance method.     

The use of information below fixation in reading and in visual search.

Two experiments examined whether or not readers obtain useful information from below the currently fixated line. In Exp 1, 15 adults read passages of text, and the availability of visual information below the line fixated was manipulated using a variant of the moving window technique. Reading was no slower when there was no letter information below the fixated line than when there was full information below the fixated line. However, a condition that made the strings of letters below the fixated line less wordlike caused reading to be slowed down by about 6%. In Exp 2, 15 adults searched for a target word through passages of text. There was no clear evidence that the availability of information below the line made search more efficient. It appears that in reading, little visual information is extracted below the line of text fixated. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of polar soil components on the phase inversion temperature and optimum detergency conditions

Previously reported results have shown that optimum removal of a hydrocarbon soil from polyester/cotton fabric occurs above the cloud point at the phase inversion temperature (PIT) of nonionic surfactant/water/soil systems. Through comparison of phase behavior measurements to radiotracer detergency studies using model sebum soils, i.e., cetane/oleyl alcohol and cetane/oleic acid blends, the relevance of the PIT for removal of nonpolar/polar soil mixtures has also been demonstrated. For these soils, the PIT is typically below the cloud point, and the highest level of soil removal is found between the PIT and cloud point rather than only at the PIT. This relatively temperature-insensitive soil removal is attributed to the preferential solubilization of polar soil components which continually changes the composition of the residual soil during the washing cycle. These findings explain the long-observed results that 4- to 5-EO alcohol ethoxylates are preferred for the removal of nonpolar soils while 6- to 9-EO ethoxylates are the more effective surfactants for sebum soils.     

A simulation for spaceborne SAR imagery of a distributed, movingscene

A computer simulation that is designed to represent aspects of spaceborn synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imagery of the ocean surface is presented. The simulation is unique in that a scatterer density (per resolution cell) is explicitly included, thus allowing the incorporation of various scattering natures, from purely specular to purely diffuse. The simulation may be applied to ocean surface wave imaging, since velocity bunching and scene coherence times are also included. Certain assumptions inherent in the velocity bunching formulation limit the applicability of the simulation in its present form to spaceborn SAR systems only. Two experiments based on this simulation are considered: (1) the effect of varying the target density; and (2) the effect of the mean scene coherence time in the imaging of a ocean swell system     

RADARSAT [SAR imaging]

RADARSAT, the first Canadian remote-sensing spacecraft, is designed to provide Earth observation information for five years. The satellite is scheduled for launch in 1994. The only payload instrument is a 5.6-cm-wavelength (C-band) synthetic aperture imaging radar (SAR). RADARSAT will gather data on command for up to 28 min during each cycle of its 800-km (nominal) near-polar orbit. Image resolutions from 10 to 100 m at swath widths of 45 to 500 km will be available. The RADARSAT mission is reviewed, and the design, characteristics, and implementation of the radar are introduced. Technical problems addressed include calibration, rapid data processing, the phased array antenna that provides controlled beam steering, and the first satellite implementation of a special radar technique known as ScanSAR     

An Agent-Based Microsimulation Model of Swiss Travel: First Results

In a multi-agent transportation simulation, each traveler is represented individually. Such a simulation consists of at least the following modules: (i) Activity generation. (ii) Modal and route choice. (iii) The traffic simulation itself. (iv) Learning and feedback. In order to find solutions which are consistent between the modules, a relaxation technique is used. This technique has similarities to day-to-day human learning.Using advanced computational methods, in particular parallel computing, it is now possible to run such a system for large metropolitan areas with 10 million inhabitants or more. This paper reports on such a simulation system for all of Switzerland. Our focus is on a computationally efficient implementation of the agent-based representation, which means that in fact each agent is represented with an individual set of plans as explained above. A database is used to store the agents' strategies, which are loaded into the simulation modules as required; the modules then feed back individual performance measures into the database. This approach allows that additional modules can be coupled easily, and without degrading computational performance.The set-up was tested for Swiss morning peak traffic. Hourly demand matrices were taken from work with the VISUM assignment package and converted to our needs. Routes were assigned via feedback learning using the agent data base. In other words, the current implementation uses a car-only versions of the modules (ii), (iii), and (iv). Resulting flow volumes are compared to the VISUM assignment results, and to field data.     

Ilizarov treatment of congenital pseudarthroses of the tibia

Sundry mevalonate-derived constituents (isoprenoids) of fruits, vegetables and cereal grains suppress the growth of tumors. This study estimated the concentrations of structurally diverse isoprenoids required to inhibit the increase in a population of murine B16(F10) melanoma cells during a 48-h incubation by 50% (IC50 value). The IC50 values for d-limonene and perillyl alcohol, the monoterpenes in Phase I trials, were 450 and 250 micromol/L, respectively; related cyclic monoterpenes (perillaldehyde, carvacrol and thymol), an acyclic monoterpene (geraniol) and the end ring analog of beta-carotene (beta-ionone) had IC50 values in the range of 120-150 micromol/L. The IC50 value estimated for farnesol, the side-chain analog of the tocotrienols (50 micromol/L) fell midway between that of alpha-tocotrienol (110 micromol/L) and those estimated for gamma- (20 micromol/L) and delta- (10 micromol/L) tocotrienol. A novel tocotrienol lacking methyl groups on the tocol ring proved to be extremely potent (IC50, 0.9 micromol/L). In the first of two diet studies, experimental diets were fed to weanling C57BL female mice for 10 d prior to and 28 d following the implantation of the aggressively growing and highly metastatic B16(F10) melanoma. The isomolar (116 micromol/kg diet) and the Vitamin E-equivalent (928 micromol/kg diet) substitution of d-gamma-tocotrienol for dl-alpha-tocopherol in the AIN-76A diet produced 36 and 50% retardations, respectively, in tumor growth (P < 0.05). In the second study, melanomas were established before mice were fed experimental diets formulated with 2 mmol/kg d-gamma-tocotrienol, beta-ionone individually and in combination. Each treatment increased (P < 0.03) the duration of host survival. Our finding that the effects of individual isoprenoids were additive suggests the possibility that one component of the anticarcinogenic action of plant-based diets is the tumor growth-suppressive action of the diverse isoprenoid constituents of fruits, vegetables and cereal grains.