A multinational study of the factorial structure and other characteristics of the Dartmouth COOP Functional Health Assessment Charts/WONCA

BACKGROUND: The 'Dartmouth COOP Functional Health Assessment Charts/WONCA' constitute a relatively new derived instrument for assessing health status that is specifically intended for use in primary care on a world-wide basis. It needs further validation in its special area of use. OBJECTIVES: Over a range of countries, social backgrounds and case mixes, our aim was (i) to examine the factorial structure of the instrument; (ii) to explore how well it was understood; (iii) to check its acceptability; and (iv) to assess the value of the pictures on the charts. METHODS: The charts themselves, accompanied by a short questionnaire about the charts, were administered to 1719 patients at eight varied types of treatment centre in Canada, Japan, Nepal and Spain. The responses to the instrument were subjected to standard factor analysis and a special Q-type principal components analysis. The responses to direct questions about the charts were compared with the answers to open-ended questions. RESULTS: Factor analysis suggested a shared factorial pattern for all sites, with the first two factors accounting for 88.5% of the variability in correlations between the charts across the sites. The individual questions were understood by most patients, but a substantial minority did not appear to grasp the underlying purpose of the instrument. The instrument was well accepted. The pictures were considered to be helpful by most respondents, especially those at the Nepal sites. The variability in the scores for the individual charts across sites was less than expected and not always in the expected direction. CONCLUSIONS: The COOP/WONCA system continues to show promise, but needs more validation.     

Thermomechanical Fatigue Behaviour of a Nickel Base Superalloy

The isothermal low cycle fatigue (LCF)and thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) behaviourof a Ni-base superalloy was investigated. Theresults show that temperature plays an importantrole in both LCF and TMF. The alloy shows thelowest LCF fatigue resistance in the intermediatetemperature range (～760℃). For strain-controlledTMF, in-phase (IP) cycling is more damagingthan out-phase (OP) cycling. The high tempera-ture exposure in the TMF cycling influencesthe deformation behaviour at the low temperature.LCF lives at different temperatures, and IPand OP TMF lives are successfully correlatedby using the hysteresis parameter Δσ·Δε_p.     

INFLUENCE OF SOME FACTORS ON FLUID FLOW IN CONTINUOUS CASTING TUNDISHES

The influence of some factors on velocity field in continuous casting tundishes has been veri-fied by means of computer simulation.These factors are tundish wall inclination;thedimensionless geometric size of tundish,the double inclined wall tundish;the dimension andlocation of weir and dam.     

Variability in nanoscale CMOS technology

Moore’s Law technology scaling has improved VLSI performance by five orders of magnitude in the last four decades. As advanced technologies continue the pursuit of Moore’s Law, a variety of challenges will need to be overcome. One of these challenges is management of process variation. This paper discusses the importance of process variation in modern CMOS transistor technology, reviews front-end variation sources, presents device and circuit variation measurement techniques (including circuit and SRAM data...     

Next-generation lithography for 22 and 16 nm technology nodes and beyond

In this paper, next-generation lithography (NGL) for the 22 and 16 nm technology nodes and beyond is reviewed. A broad range of topics, including history, technologies, critical challenges, and the most plausible candidates are discussed. The 22 and 16 nm technology nodes rely on NGL. NGLs have been extensively studied. Because of technological issues, the semiconductor industry has stopped pursuing several NGLs, such as X-ray proximity lithography, ion projection lithography, and scattering with angular li...     

Calculation of the extreme ultraviolet radiation of the earth's plasmasphere

The dynamic global core plasma model(DGCPM) is used in this paper to calculate the He+ density distribution of the Earth's plasmasphere and to investigate the configurations and 30.4 nm radiation properties of the plasmasphere.Validation comparisons between the simulation results and IMAGE mission observations show:That the equatorial structure of the plasmapause is mainly located near 5.5 RE and the typical scale of plasmasphere shrinking or expansion within 10 min is approximately 0.1 RE;that the plasmasp...