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.     

Robust ℋ︁∞ PID control for multivariable networked control systems with disturbance/noise attenuation

In this paper, we study the design problem of PID controllers for networked control systems (NCSs) with polyhedral uncertainties. The load disturbance and measurement noise are both taken into account in the modeling to better reflect the practical scenario. By using a novel technique, the design problem of PID controllers is converted into a design problem of output feedback controllers. Our goal of this paper is two‐fold: (1) To design the robust PID tracking controllers for practical models; (2) To develop the robust ??_∞ PID control such that load and reference disturbances can be attenuated with a prescribed level. Sufficient conditions are derived by employing advanced techniques for achieving delay dependence. The proposed controller can be readily designed based on iterative suboptimal algorithms. Finally, four examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient recommender system algorithm using trust data

The Journal of Supercomputing - Smart services are a concept that provides services to the citizens in an efficient manner. The online shopping and recommender system can play an important role for...     

High throughput blood plasma separation using a passive PMMA microfluidic device

Since plasma is rich in many biomarkers used in clinical diagnostic experiments, microscale blood plasma separation is a primitive step in most of microfluidic analytical chips. In this paper, a passive microfluidic device for on-chip blood plasma separation based on Zweifach–Fung effect and plasma skimming was designed and fabricated by hot embossing of microchannels on a PMMA substrate and thermal bonding process. Human blood was diluted in various times and injected into the device. The main novelty of the proposed microfluidic device is the design of diffuser-shaped daughter channels. Our results demonstrated that this design exerted a considerable positive influence on the separation efficiency of the passive separator device, and the separation efficiency of 66.6 % was achieved. The optimum purity efficiency of 70 % was achieved for 1:100 dilution times.     

Effect of heat treatment on foaming properties of ostrich (Struthio camelus) egg white proteins

The effect of heat-treatment on foaming properties of ostrich albumen was investigated. At pH 7.5, coagulation of ovotransferrin (OT) resulted in minimum foaming capacity (FC) and maximum foam density (FD). While both exposure of sulfhydryl groups of ovalbumin (OV) and OT-OV interactions improved FC at lower pH, neither of them had beneficial effect on FC at pH 9. At pH 9, FC and FD were mildly affected by heat-treatment because of less aggregation of OT, then FC decreased due to covalent aggregates composed of ovomucin and OV, but at higher temperatures, higher level of OV unfolding resulted in enhanced FC.     

Preparation of novel 2-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-4-yl)-3- arylthiazolidin-4-one derivatives using an efficient ionic liquid catalyst

An eco-friendly procedure for synthesis of 2-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-4-yl)-3-arylthiazolidin-4-one derivatives by three-component reaction of 2-oxo-2H-chromene-4-carbaldehydes, aromatic amines and thioglycolic acid, with tetramethylbutane-1,4-diammonium acetate as a low-cost ionic liquid catalyst under reflux condition is described. The use of an ionic liquid as a catalyst has the advantages of high yields, short reaction time and environmentally friendly reaction media.     

Impact of oxygen concentration during the deposition of window layers on lowering the metastability effects in Cu(In,Ga)Se2/CBD Zn(S,O) based solar cell

The purpose of the present paper is to focus on the impact of oxygen gas partial pressure during the sputtering of i‐ZnO and ZnMgO on the transient behavior of Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGSe) based solar cells parameters when a CBD‐Zn(S,O) buffer layer is used. Based on electrical characterization of cells, it is observed that the effect of light soaking is different on J–V characteristics depending on whether oxygen is or is not present during the first deposition time of the i‐ZnO or ZnMgO layers. In fact, when cells are prepared with standard i‐ZnO, the efficiencies are very low and a pronounced transient behavior is observed. However, when the first 10 nm of i‐ZnO or ZnMgO is formed by sputtered layer without adding oxygen during the process, depending on the thickness of the buffer layer, the transient effects strongly decreases. It is then possible to get stable cells reaching efficiencies quite similar to the CdS reference cells, especially with ZnMgO, without any post‐treatments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation,model‐reduction,and state estimation of a two‐component coagulation process

The issue of state estimation of an aggregation process through (1) using model reduction to obtain a tractable approximation of the governing dynamics and (2) designing a fast moving‐horizon estimator for the reduced‐order model is addressed. The method of moments is first used to reduce the governing integro‐differential equation down to a nonlinear ordinary differential equation. This reduced‐order model is then simulated for both batch and continuous processes and the results are shown to agree with constant Number Monte Carlo simulation results of the original model. Next, the states of the reduced order model are estimated in a moving horizon estimation approach. For this purpose, Carleman linearization is first employed and the nonlinear system is represented in a bilinear form. This representation lessens the computation burden of the estimation problem by allowing for analytical solution of the state variables as well as sensitivities with respect to decision variables. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 1557–1567, 2016     

Thermal,mechanical, and corrosion resistance properties of vinyl ester/clay nanocomposites for the matrix of carbon fiber‐reinforced composites exposed to electron beam

Vinyl ester/clay nanocomposites with 1, 3, and 5% nanoclay contents were prepared. X‐ray diffractography patterns and Scanning Electron micrographs showed that nanocomposites with the exfoliated structure were formed. Thermogravimetric analysis, water absorption test, and Tafel polarization method, respectively, revealed the improvements in thermal resistance, water barrier properties, and corrosion resistance properties of the samples with an increase in the amount of the incorporated nanoclay. Tensile tests showed that nanoclay also enhanced the mechanical properties of the polymer, so that the tensile strength of the samples with 5% nanoclay was more than 3 times higher than tensile strength of pure vinyl ester samples. Overall, the best properties were observed for the samples containing 5% nanoclay. Pure vinyl ester and nanocomposite with 5% nanoclay content were exposed to the electron beam radiation and their mechanical properties improved up to 500 kGy irradiation dose. Finally, pure vinyl ester and vinyl ester/nanoclay (5%) matrixes were reinforced with carbon fiber and the effect of electron beam irradiation on their mechanical properties was examined. The tensile strength and the modulus of the samples initially increased after exposure to the radiation doses up to 500 kGy and then a decrease was observed as the irradiation dose rose to 1000 kGy. Moreover, nanoclay moderated the effect of the irradiation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42393.     

Nanosilica Supported Dual Acidic Ionic Liquid as a Recyclable Catalyst for the Rapid and Green Synthesis of Polycyclic Phenolic Compounds

Generally ionic liquids have gained increasing attention in organic synthesis as catalyst and solvent. However, there are some drawbacks, including the difficulties in the product purification, ionic liquid recycling, and use of excess amounts of the expensive ionic liquid when the ionic liquid is used in the organic reactions. In addition, the high viscosity of ionic liquids can lead to mass transfer limitations in fast chemical reactions. These problems can be overcome by the use of supported ionic liquid phases. In this article, a simple, efficient and green method has been developed for the synthesis of bisphenolic antioxidants by the reaction of 2-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol and aldehydes in the presence of nanosilica supported dual acidic ionic liquid (NSSDAIL) as robust and reusable catalyst under solvent-free conditions. Three different NSSDAILs were synthesized and characterized using SEM, BET, IR, and XRD techniques. High yields of the products, short reaction times, use of a non corrosive, non toxic and reusable catalyst, and use of solvent-free condition are the worthwhile advantages of the current method.