The incidence of drug-related problems as a cause of hospital admissions in children

OBJECTIVES: To determine the incidence of hospital admissions for drug-related problems (DRPs) among children, and to examine cases for causality, preventability and clinical severity. DESIGN: Prospective assessment involving review of case notes and parent interview to determine if an admission was associated with a DRP. PATIENTS AND SETTING: All patients admitted to a large university-affiliated paediatric hospital in Melbourne, Victoria, for medical reasons (i.e., not surgical, trauma or oncology patients) during 56 consecutive days from 24 June to 19 August 1996 for which a DRP could be identified. Patients whose parents or guardians could not communicate adequately in English were excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The incidence, type, causality, preventability and clinical severity of DRPs associated with admission. RESULTS: Of 1682 eligible patients admitted to the Royal Children's Hospital during the study period, 58 admissions (3.4%) were associated with DRPs. Non-compliance was implicated in 50%. Causality was ranked as "definite" (34.5%), "possible" (56.9%) and "doubtful" (8.6). Two-thirds of admissions associated with DRPs were deemed preventable. Although no patients died from DRPs, four were admitted to the intensive care unit. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of DRPs as a cause of hospital admission in this study falls within the range of incidences published for the Australian adult population (range, 2.4%-22%). In contrast to findings among Australian adults, a high proportion of admissions for DRPs in this study were associated with non-compliance. The high percentage of preventable admissions indicates that further study is necessary to characterise risk factors within this population and to test prevention strategies.     

Longitudinal assessment of inpatient use and functioning of seriously mentally ill veterans with and without co-occurring substance use disorders

Within a fungal species, a subset of individuals may have more than the minimal complement of chromosomes. If the extra chromosomes are composed primarily of DNA not found in all representatives of the species, they are most appropriately referred to as supernumerary chromosomes. The patterns of repeated DNA sequences on certain supernumerary chromosomes suggest that they have a different evolutionary history from the essential chromosomes in the same genome. Supernumerary chromosomes can carry functional genes and, in at least two fungal species, genes on such chromosomes play important roles in host-pathogen interactions. Supernumerary chromosomes that confer an adaptive advantage in certain habitats, such as the ability to cause disease on a specific host, may be referred to as "conditionally dispensable" chromosomes in order to reflect their importance in some, but not all, growth conditions. In addition to describing the structural and functional characteristics of known supernumerary chromosomes in fungi, this review discusses the relative merits of the terms that have been used to describe them, and establishes experimental criteria for their identification.     

Fast transmission CT for determining attenuation maps using a collimated line source, rotatable air-copper-lead attenuators and fan-beam collimation

We describe a technique using a line source and a rotatable air-copper-lead assembly to acquire gamma transmission computed tomographic (TCT) data for determining attenuation maps to compensate SPECT emission scans. The technique minimizes problems associated with discriminating 99mTc transmission and 201Tl emission photons and requires only a modest increase in total study time. A 99mTc line source and a stacked foil ("multislat") collimator are placed near the focal line of a fan-beam collimator (114 cm focal length) mounted on one detector of a triple-camera SPECT system. We acquired TCT data of plastic rod and anthropomorphic thorax phantoms to investigate the capability of the line source and rotatable air-copper-lead attenuators to determine attenuation maps. The data were acquired with and without 5.4 MBq (145 microCi) of 201Tl placed in the myocardial chamber of the thorax phantom. Phantoms also were scanned using a curved transmission slab source mounted to a parallel-hole collimator. Fan-beam TCT images have improved resolution compared with parallel-beam TCT images. Two patient scans also were performed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of fan-beam TCT. The rotatable air-copper-lead attenuator method eliminates contamination of emission data by transmission photons and reduces spill-over of emission data into the transmission energy window for some cases. Results show the feasibility of using fast, sequential or interlaced transmission scans of a line source within a rotatable air-copper-lead attenuator assembly to obtain accurate attenuation maps for SPECT attenuation compensation.     

Viscoelastic behavior of epoxy/carbon fiber/Zno nano‐rods hybrid composites

The insufficient viscoelastic resistance of fiber reinforced plastics can be retrofitted by the addition of more rigid nano fillers to the polymer matrix. In this study, carbon fibers plies were grafted with zinc oxide (ZnO) nano‐rods and the hybridized reinforcement was utilized in laminated composites. Flexural creep tests were carried out using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and the time/temperature superposition principle was employed for accelerated testing. To verify the applicability of TTPS, prolonged stress relaxation tests were also carried out in flexural mode. Data from the DMA flexural creep tests revealed that the whiskerization of carbon fibers with ZnO nano rods reduced the creep compliance by 23% at elevated temperatures and prolonged durations. Also, the relaxation data confirmed the applicability of TTPS to these hybrid composites. The stress relaxation modulus improved by 65% in comparison to composites based on neat carbon fibers. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:1967–1972, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineer     

地下水水文地球化学空间分带性——以福建大田琴山矿区为例

通过对福建大田琴山矿区水文地质调查,并对研究区所取的8件水样水质分析结果研究发现,该地区的地下水类型主要以HCO3-Ca为主。通过Gibbs模型分析,其成因是岩石风化与大气降水共同作用的结果,是大气降水渗入岩层并经过溶滤作用形成现今的地下水特征类型。结合研究区的地质地貌特征,发现研究区水化学成分在垂直方向上存在明显的分带性,由地表到地下,随着深度增加,研究区水化学类型由HCO3-Ca向HCO3.SO4-Ca、SO4.HCO3-Ca过渡,在深部形成SO4-Ca型水,主要受研究区矿物岩石组合类型的控制,这为研究地下水水文地球化学分带性成因提供了很好的例子。     

Dense Plasma Injection Experiment at MCX

We present preliminary results of the High Density Plasma Injection Experiment at the Maryland Centrifugal Experiment (MCX). HyperV Technologies Corp. has designed, built, and installed a prototype coaxial gun to drive rotation in MCX. This gun has been designed to avoid the blow-by instability via a combination of electrode shaping and a tailored plasma armature. An array of diagnostics indicates the gun is capable of plasma jets with a mass of 160 μg at 70 km/s with an average plasma density above 10¹⁵ cm⁻³. Preliminary measurements are underway at MCX to understand the penetration of the plasma jet through the MCX magnetic field and the momentum transfer from the jet to the MCX plasma. Data will be presented for a wide range of MCX field parameters, and the prospects for future injection experiments will be evaluated.     

Improved arsenic doping in metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of HgCdTe andin situ growth of high performance long wavelength infrared photodiodes

Controlled and effective p-type doping is a key ingredient forin situ growth of high performance HgCdTe photodiode detectors. In this paper, we present a detailed study of p-type doping with two arsenic precursors in metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) of HgCdTe. Doping results from a new precursortris-dimethylaminoarsenic (DMAAs), are reported and compared to those obtained from tertiarybutylarsine (TBAs). Excellent doping control has been achieved using both precursors in the concentration range of 3 × 1015-5 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻³ which is sufficient for a wide variety of devices. Arsenic incorporation efficiency for the same growth temperature and partial pressure is found to be higher with DMAAs than with TBAs. For doping levels up to 1 × 10₁₇ cm⁻³, the alloy composition is not significantly affected by DMAAs. However, at higher doping levels, an increase in the x-value is observed, possibly as a result of surface adduct formation of DMAAs dissociative products with dimethylcadmium. The activation of the arsenic as acceptors is found to be in the 152–50% range for films grown with DMAAs following a stoichiometric anneal. However, a site transfer anneal increases the acceptor activation to near 100%. Detailed temperature dependent Hall measurements and modeling calculations show that two shallow acceptor levels are involved with ionization energies of 11.9 and 3.2 meV. Overall, the data indicate that DMAAs results in more classically behaved acceptor doping. This is most likely because DMAAs has a more favorable surface dissociation chemistry than TBAs. Long wavelength infrared photodiode arrays were fabricated on P-on-n heterojunctions, grownin situ with iodine doping from ethyl iodide and arsenic from DMAAs on near lattice matched CdZnTe (100) substrates. At 77K, for photodiodes with 10.1 and 11.1 (im cutoff wavelengths, the average (for 100 elements 60 × 60 μm² in size) zero-bias resistance-area product, R₀A are 434 and 130 ohm-cm², respectively. Quantum efficiencies are ≥50% at 77K. These are the highest R₀A data reported for MOCVDin situ grown photodiodes and are comparable to state-of-the-art LPE grown photodiodes processed and tested under identical conditions.     

Feature-based representation for manufacturing planning

Improved integration using product models in a computer aided design and manufacture environment implies that there is an enhanced need to provide information support across a wide range of applications. In a typical situation concerned with mechanical products, these applications are likely to include detail design, process planning and assembly planning. Features have frequently been used to support these and other applications individually, but single feature representations that simultaneously meet the information needs of a number of applications are unusual. Assembly and process planning are two important aspects of an integrated design and manufacture system, and a formal structure for their representation in a feature-based design system is presented. Features are considered to be machined volumes and are described in a hierarchical taxonomy that is designed to be useful across a range of machined components. The assembly structure is also defined hierarchically with the (machining) features forming the basic entities in the assembly. Assembly relationships among features are defined in the form of mating relationships that are carried by the features. A set of mating relationships between pairs of features has been defined after having studied the literature and a number of engineering products. An integrated data structure containing process planning information from earlier research work and the assembly mating relationships is presented and forms the basis of class definitions for each level in the assembly hierarchy. Object-oriented programming techniques have been used to implement a prototype system using the ACIS solid modelling kernel. The research has illustrated the feasibility of using a single feature representation to support a number of activities within a computer integrated manufacturing environment.     

Human mismatches and preferences for automation

The research reported in this paper is concerned with gaining a better understanding of human factors issues in machining and the automation of manufacturing tasks. Mismatches between operators' performance and the requirements of machining tasks were experimentally studied with respect to the relationships with various human characteristics, including skill, age, work experience, self-confidence and trust. Twelve hypotheses concerning interrelationships between these characteristics were evaluated and important relationships established. It is considered that this increased knowledge of the rate of mismatches and an understanding of the causes is essential for the successful design of new working environments, machines and tasks. Much of this change to the working environment is likely to involve some degree of automation of the operators' tasks and so a second and important aspect of the study was designed to establish the extent to which preferred levels of automation were related to the same human characteristics. Four further hypotheses relating preferred levels of automation to skill, age, work experience, self-confidence and trust were tested with results that, in some cases, were unexpected and in others contradict the findings of previous research.     

Disgust as a disease-avoidance mechanism.

Many researchers have claimed that the emotion of disgust functions to protect us from disease. Although there have been several discussions of this hypothesis, none have yet reviewed the evidence in its entirety. The authors derive 14 hypotheses from a disease-avoidance account and evaluate the evidence for each, drawing upon research on pathogen avoidance in animals and empirical research on disgust. In all but 1 case, the evidence favors a disease-avoidance account. It is suggested that disgust is evoked by objects/people that possess particular types of prepared features that connote disease. Such simple disgusts are directly disease related, are acquired during childhood, and are able to contaminate other objects/people. The complex disgusts, which emerge later in development, may be mediated by several emotions. In these cases, violations of societal norms that may subserve a disease-avoidance function, notably relating to food and sex, act as reminders of simple disgust elicitors and thus generate disgust and motivate compliance. The authors find strong support for a disease-avoidance account and suggest that it offers a way to bridge the divide between concrete and ideational accounts of disgust. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)