The importance of geriatrics to family medicine: a position paper by the Group on Geriatric Education of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine

The role of geriatrics and geriatricians in family medicine remains unsettled. Despite a rapidly aging population, a tremendous shortage now exists of faculty with interest and expertise in geriatrics. Relatively few family practice residents choose to enter geriatric fellowship programs, and federal funding for such programs has been reduced. Despite accreditation requirements, residency programs are not always able to provide the range of geriatric experiences needed to properly prepare graduates to provide care for the broad range of older patients. Medical students' exposure to geriatrics remains limited. The Group on Geriatric Education of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine believes that family medicine faculty must recognize and be committed to the notion that geriatrics is integral to family medicine. Both undergraduate and residency training programs should emphasize experience with geriatric patients in multiple settings. In particular, the nursing home should not be the main focus of geriatric training. The small number of certified geriatric faculty will be able to provide leadership, but a broad range of faculty must become involved in teaching geriatrics. Faculty development activities and continuing education programs to foster the necessary expertise will be essential to the accomplishment of this task.     

Photoactive Electrodes Incorporating Electrosprayed Bacterial Reaction Centers

Highly efficient light absorption and charge separation within the photosystem and reaction center (RC) complexes of photosynthetic plants and bacteria are of great interest for solar cell and photo detector applications, since they offer almost unity quantum yield and expected ultimate power conversion efficiencies of more than 18% and 12%, respectively. In addition, the charge separated states created by these protein complexes are very long lived compared to conventional semiconductor solar cells. In this work, a novel technique is presented for the deposition of photosynthetic protein complexes, by electrospraying RCs of Rhodobacter sphaeroides onto highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) electrodes. Remarkably, it is shown that the RCs not only survive exposure to the high electric fields but also yield peak photocurrent densities of up to 7 μA cm^?2, which is equal to the highest value reported to date.     

Representations of linear periodically time-varying and multirate systems

The linear switched time-varying (LSTV), polyphase (blocked), and alias-component representations of linear periodically time-varying (LPTV) systems are studied. In particular, alias-components are related to the time-shifted versions of the system. It is shown that in general, a filterbank is equivalent to the cascade connection of two LPTV systems. By generalizing some of the results of the LSTV representation of LPTV systems, it is shown that for relatively coprime integers p and m, a p-channel filterbank that has LPTV filters with period m is equivalent to an mp-channel filterbank with LTI filters. The representation of multirate systems that have LPTV kernels is discussed next. Due to the presence of the upsampler and downsampler, there are some degrees of freedom in the choice of the kernel. This redundancy is dealt with by choosing from various subclasses so that there is a one-to-one relationship between a multirate system and its kernel. Then, we find the LPTV kernel that has the least period.     

A 12-bit integrated analog front end for broadband wirelinenetworks

An integrated transceiver for broadband wireline networks is presented. The transceiver includes a receive data path, a transmit data path, and auxiliary functions including serial port interface, clock and reference generation blocks, and voltage regulator control circuitry. The receive data path provides constant input impedance and is composed of two variable gain amplifier (VGA) blocks, a tuned analog 4-pole filter, a 12-b analog-to-digital converter (ADC) sampling at 32 MHz, and a digital high-pass filter. Filter tuning using switched-capacitor arrays occurs in the background, with no effect on signal reception. The transmit data path contains digital interpolation filters and a 12-b digital-to-analog converter (DAC) sampling at 128 MHz. The chip was implemented in double-poly triple-metal 0.35-μm CMOS technology. Measured performance for both receive and transmit data paths meets target specifications with no noticeable crosstalk     

Least square identification of alias components of linear periodically time-varying systems and optimal training signal design

A least-squares (LS) method for identifying alias components of discrete linear periodically time-varying (LPTV) systems is proposed.The authors apply a periodic input signal to a finite impulse response (FIR)--LPTV system and measure the noise-contaminated output.The output of this LPTV system has the same period as the input when the period of the input signal is amultiple of the period of the LPTV system.The authors show that the input and the output can be related by using the discrete Fourier transform. In the frequency domain, an LS method can be used to identify the alias components. A lower bound on the mean square error (MSE) of the estimated alias components is given for FIR--LPTV systems.The optimal training signal achieving this lower MSE bound is designed subsequently. The algorithm is extended to the identification of infinite impulse response (IIR)--LPTV systems as well. Simulation results show the accuracy of the estimation and the efficiency of the optimal training signal design.     

Setting thresholds for quality indicators derived from MDS data for nursing home quality improvement reports: an update

BACKGROUND: Determining meaningful thresholds to reinforce excellent performance and flag potential problem areas in nursing home care is critical for preparing reports for nursing homes to use in their quality improvement programs. This article builds on the work of an earlier panel of experts that set thresholds for quality indicators (QIs) derived from Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessment data. Thresholds were now set for the revised MDS 2.0 two-page quarterly form and Resource Utilization Groups III (RUGS III) quarterly instrument. SETTING THRESHOLDS: In a day-long session in October 1998, panel members individually determined lower (good) and upper (poor) threshold scores for each QI, reviewed statewide distributions of MDS QIs, and completed a follow-up Delphi of the final results. REPORTING MDS QIS FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT: The QI reports compiled longitudinal data for all residents in the nursing home during each quarter and cumulatively displayed data for five quarters for each QI. A resident roster was provided to the nursing home so that the quality improvement team could identify the specific residents who developed the problems defined by each QI during the last quarter. Quality improvement teams found the reports helpful and easy to interpret. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS: As promised in an earlier report, to ensure that thresholds reflect current practice, research using experts in a panel to set thresholds was repeated as needed. As the MDS instrument or recommended calculations for the MDS QIs change, thresholds will be reestablished to ensure a fit with the instrument and data.     

Alias-Component Matrices of Multirate Systems

We consider a multirate system, which is a generalization of linear time-invariant systems. Such a system is invariant to a certain shift in the input sequence. In particular, assume that p and q are coprime. A multirate system with the property that a delay of mq samples in its input sequence results in a delay of mp samples in its output sequence is called an (mp, mq)-periodic system. This multirate system can be obtained by cascading an upsampler, followed by a linear periodically time-varying (LPTV) kernel system, then followed by a downsampler. Here, we study the alias-component matrices of multirate systems. We show that they can be obtained from the alias-component matrices of their LPTV kernels by some row and column additions. An example shows the use of the method to design rate changers for a specified frequency band swap.     

Effects of structural variables on AUL and rheological behavior of SAP gels

The swelling properties of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) under real conditions are extremely important for selecting the material suitable for a given application, e.g. feminine napkin or agriculture. This new practical research represents deeper synthetic and physicochemical studies on the structure–property relation in acrylic SAP hydrogels and composites. Thus, the values of saline‐absorbency under load (AUL; a measurable simulation of the real circumstances of SAP applications, at pressures 0.3–0.9 psi) were measured for the SAP or SAP composite samples prepared under different conditions, i.e. type and content of crosslinker, type and concentration of initiator, percentage of inorganic filler (kaolin), and type and percentage of porosity generators. The samples were subsequently used to determine the rheological and morphological characteristics. Dynamic storage modulus (G′) measurements were carried out at constant strain in a wide range of frequency. Linear correlations were frequently found to be active between AUL and G′ data over the rubber‐elastic plateau. Thus, for a given SAP: AUL = k_totalG′ + C. The coefficient k total is a function of (nature and content of crosslinker, initiator, inorganic component, particle morphology, etc.). Therefore, the easily measured AUL values could be simply correlated to the main synthesis variables and molecular structure of SAP gels through a rheological material function (G′). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

A 3-V 340-mW 14-b 75-Msample/s CMOS ADC with 85-dB SFDR at Nyquistinput

This paper describes the design of a 14-b 75-Msample/s pipeline analog-to-digital converter (ADC) implemented in a 0.35-μm double-poly triple-metal CMOS process. The ADC uses a 4-b first stage to relax capacitor-matching requirements, buffered bootstrapping to reduce signal-dependent charge injection, and a flip-around track-and-hold amplifier with wide common-mode compliance to reduce noise and power consumption. It achieves 14-b accuracy without calibration or dithering. Typical differential nonlinearity is 0.6 LSB, and integral nonlinearity is 2 LSB. The ADC also achieves 73-dB signal-to-noise ratio, and 85-dB spurious-free dynamic range over the first Nyquist band. The 7.8-mm² ADC operates with a 2.7- to 3.6-V supply, and dissipates 340 mW at 3 V