Improvement in the sociomedical support for the urban family under current conditions

Medico-demographic processes and socio-hygienic characteristics of the population of a large city, both at an individual and familial levels, as well as territorial characteristics of residence, should be taken into consideration when developing measures for medicosocial care of the population. Analysis of the attitude of 380 city families to the activities, personality, and professional skills of local therapists and pediatricians and to the idea of primary health care rendered by a physician of a general profile demonstrated an increased activity of the families in the "physician-patient" system and confirmed the necessity of improving medicosocial care of a city family, expansion of prophylactic work with the population with due consideration for factors which have an impact on population health.     

Strategic questions for consumer-based health communications

Using the consumer-oriented approach of social and commercial marketers, this article presents a process for crafting messages designed to improve people's health behaviors. The process, termed consumer-based health communications (CHC), transforms scientific recommendations into message strategies that are relevant to the consumer. The core of CHC is consumer research conducted to understand the consumer's reality, and thereby allowing six strategic questions to be answered. The immediate result of the CHC process is a strategy statement--a few pages that lay out who the target consumer is, what action should be taken, what to promise and how to make the promise credible, how and when to reach him or her, and what image to convey. The strategy statement then guides the execution of all communication efforts, be they public relations, mass media, direct marketing, media advocacy, or interpersonal influence. It identifies the most important "levers" for contact with the consumer. Everyone from creative specialists through management and program personnel can use the strategy statement as a touchstone to guide and judge the effectiveness of their efforts. The article provides a step by step illustration of the CHC process using the 5 A Day campaign as an example.     

Unsteady laminar gas flows in an annular nozzle

On the basis of the Navier–Stokes equations, a parametric study of the influence of various factors on the development of initial perturbations caused by starting an air-blown annular nozzle is performed for the laminar model of flow. Flow regimes are found in which the start perturbations accompanying the initiation of the nozzle do not attenuate but pass to a quasi-periodic mode. The frequency Fourier spectrum of pressure fluctuations at the center of the thrust wall and the value of the thrust of the nozzle are determined. Typical pulsed pressure signals obtained in the calculation model and detected in the experiments are presented.     

Corrosion-Mechanical Strength of Structural Materials in Contact with Liquid Lead

Corrosion-mechanical tests of 10Kh15N9S3B and 10Kh9NSMFB steel samples in liquid lead at 360–550°C have shown that the long-time strength in lead flow decreases at short times to fracture and converges to the results of tests performed in air at about 10000 h. No liquid-metal embrittlement of 10Kh15N9C3B steel is observed. 10Kh9NSMFB steel becomes brittle in the hardened state. Embrittlement intensifies in notched samples. The low-cycle fatigue strength is correlated with a change in ductility with short-time fracture. No decrease of fracture toughness of 10Kh9NSMFB steel with a fatigue crack was observed in tests in liquid lead.     

Discrete positions method in kinematics and control of spatial linkagesEine methode der diskreten lagen in der kinematik und steuerung der bewegungen raumlicher mechanismen

Using the screw theory in the field of infinitesimal displacements, the first and second order transfer functions of spatial kinematic chains are algebrised. Based on this, a method of finite increments of the relative displacements in the joints is offered. Finally, an algorithm for the control strategy of open kinematic chains of manipulators and robots was evolved using an imaginary closing of the kinematic chain while bearing in mind the conditions for instantaneous mobility (transitory).     

Performance improvement using time delays in multivariable controller design

A new controller for linear multivariable ordinary systems is suggested in which distributed delays are included in the feedback loop. A general design approach to obtain this type of controller is suggested. It is shown that the resulting closed-loop system is asymptotically stable under some sufficient conditions. Sufficient conditions are derived under which the disturbance attenuation, the robustness against parameter variations, and the time-delay stability margins are improved by the proposed controller. The state feedback tracking controller and the dual-state observer are obtained by modification of the proposed controller.     

Electromagnetic and Thermomechanical Effect Produced by an Electronic Beam on a Solid Barrier

The developed mathematical model simulates the thermomechanical effects which accompany electron scattering in a barrier. The generation of a space charge and an electromagnetic field is taken into account. For the ionized substance of the barrier and an electromagnetic field, Euler equations with the Lorentz force and Joule heating and Maxwell equations with a convective current are considered. Equations are constructed for the density of the Lorentz force acting on the ionized substance and for its Joule heating in the electromagnetic field. Conservative difference analogs of the quantities responsible for the interaction of the electromagnetic field with the ionized substance are developed.     

Modeling of prebreakdown stage of gaseous discharge

A mathematical model of electron cascade transfer is presented. It is developed for studying the prebreakdown stage of gaseous discharge based on the kinetic equation for electrons in a self-consistent electromagnetic field. An elastic scattering of electrons, excitation of molecules by electron impact, and impact ionization are taken into account. A natural ionization background is used as the initial distribution of free electrons. The results of the computational experiment are compared to the data of measurements of drift velocity and the average energy of electrons of discharge, as well as the Townsend coefficient in a flat charged condensor filled with diluted xenon. The comparison showed that the model is not in contrast with the experiment. In order to contract the volume of the discharge’s full current calculation, a transport approximation is built. It is based on the averaging of angular scattering. The applicability of the transport approximation for modeling the full current of the capillary discharge is studied.