Longitudinal weight changes, length of survival, and energy requirements of long-term care residents with dementia

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that institutionalized patients with dementia, who frequently have feeding problems and require supervised and assisted feeding, would lose more weight during their residency than nondemented, independently functioning residents and have compromised survival. To test this hypothesis, we examined the survival and longitudinal changes in weight of two cohorts of institutionalized residents with dementia and compared these cohorts with a cohort of nondemented residents. We also measured the resting energy expenditures of a subset of the subjects with dementia as an indicator of their energy needs. DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study with retrospective baseline chart review and subsequent follow-up of monthly weights and mortality over 4 years. SETTING: A 725-bed long-term care institution with specified levels of care. SUBJECTS: Two cohorts of residents with dementia, one consisting of subjects who required total care throughout their institutional stay (n = 31) and another group who did not initially require total care (n = 48); these were compared with a cohort with normal mentation who were functionally independent in their daily activities (n = 26). The total number of subjects was 105. MEASUREMENTS: Demographics, medical problems, and medications by chart review; functional and mental status evaluations; longitudinal monthly weights and mortality for the 48-month study period; and resting energy expenditures by indirect calorimetry. MAIN RESULTS: Residents with dementia had lower weights on admission and throughout their stay than nondemented, independently functioning residents, and they were more likely to have a weight loss of 10 lbs or more at some point during the 4-year study period. However, their mean weights did not change during the study period. The mean survival from admission of those demented residents who died was more than 3 years. Resting energy expenditures of women residents with advanced dementia were 12% lower than predicted from the Harris Benedict equations. CONCLUSION: Dementia is not necessarily associated with unremitting weight loss during institutionalization despite the frequent occurrence of feeding difficulties and temporary weight loss. This may be caused partly by the lower than expected resting energy expenditures and, hence, energy needs of affected residents as their dementia progresses. Demented residents weighed significantly less than nondemented, independently functioning residents throughout their institutional stay. Nevertheless, nursing staff are able to maintain weight and survival for extended periods even in very impaired residents.     

Simulation and experimental analyses of electromagnetic transients behaviors of lightning surge on vertical conductors

Simulation of very fast surge phenomena in a three-dimensional (3-D) structure requires a method based on Maxwell's equations, such as the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method or the method of moments, because circuit-equation-based methods cannot handle the phenomena. This paper uses a method of thin-wire representation of the vertical conductor system for the FDTD method which is suitable for the 3-D surge simulation. The thin-wire representation is indispensable to simulate electromagnetic surges on wires or steel frames in which the radius is smaller than a discretized space step used in the FDTD simulation. In this paper, a general surge analysis program named the virtual surge test lab based on the Maxwell's equations formulated by the FDTD method, is used to simulate the surge phenomena of a vertical conductor, including the effects of horizontal wave incidence and vertical wave incidence. Experimental results on the reduced scale model have been presented in order to compare among the simulation results by the FDTD method and the results using numerical electromagnetic code based on the MoM.     

APPLICATION OF RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY FOR THE MAXIMIZATION OF CONCORA CRUSH RESISTANCE OF PAPERBOARD

Response surface methodology is often used by researchers in different fields to determine the optimum values for controlled variables to maximize or minimize the response variables. Either maximization or minimization might be necessary depending on the response property. For example, if the response variable represents the yield of a process, maximization could be necessary; on the other hand, if the response variable is the biological oxygen demand (BOD) of an effluent the aim would definitely be minimization

Response surface methodology can be used two ways. It can be applied to the full-scale production or it can be scaled to a laboratory or the pilot plant. When applied to the full-scale production, the method is known as evolutionary operation (EVOP). EVOP is the continuous optimization of a process. The optimum conditions in a production plant can change depending on many factors such as raw material, ambient temperature, and equipment wear. Therefore, controlled variables should be optimized continuously to keep the response variable as close as possible to the maximum or minimum value. Hence, controlled variables are systematically changed around a center point to depict any shift of the response variable from the extreme. A thorough discussion of EVOP is given by Box, Evolutionary Operation: A Method for Increasing Industrial Productivity, Appl. Statist., 6, 81-101 (1957).     

Dyes from the leaves of deciduous plants with a high tannin content for wool

The aqueous leaf extracts of five different deciduous plants, namely, silver oak, flame of the forest, tanner’s senna, wattle and serviceberry, were used on their own and in combination with aluminium sulphate, stannous chloride and ferrous sulphate to dye wool by a simultaneous mordanting technique. The washing and light fastness properties of the developed shades were moderate to good. Based on the CIE 2000 spectral colour coordinate values (K/S, ΔL, Δa, Δb and ΔE), the developed shades were classified into four groups: yellow/brown, yellow, orange and dark grey. The use of aluminium sulphate gave medium shades (K/S = 8.24), while the stannous chloride and ferrous sulphate mordants provided deep shades (K/S = 30.5). Statistical analyses have shown that only the type of mordant and not the dye source significantly influenced the development of colour on wool. Hence, it was theoretically possible to use five selected leaves as a single mixture to produce four different colours on wool.     

Hierarchical Fuzzy Systems Integrated with Particle Swarm Optimization for Daily Reference Evapotranspiration Prediction: a Novel Approach

Water Resources Management - Reference evapotranspiration (ET0) is a crucial element for deriving irrigation scheduling of major crops. Thus, precise projection of ET0 is essential for better...     

RFID-based interactive multimedia system for the children

In this paper, we present an interactive edutainment system for the children that leverages multimedia and RFID technologies in a seamless manner. The proposed system allows children to learn about new objects/entities by tapping on physical objects through a specially designed RFID-Bluetooth based Tangible User Interface (TUI) tool. The output of the system is delivered as a set of appropriate multimedia representations related to the objects being tapped. The TUI uses RFID technology for object identification and Bluetooth communication to transmit data to the computer where the system??s software is running. We incorporated our system in three games that allow children of different ages to benefit from the system??s functionalities and encourage them to interact with it.     

Determining trust in media-rich websites using semantic similarity

Significant growth of multimedia content on the World Wide Web (or simply ??Web??) has made it an essential part of peoples lives. The web provides enormous amount of information, however, it is very important for the users to be able to gauge the trustworthiness of web information. Users normally access content from the first few links provided to them by search engines such as Google or Yahoo!. This is assuming that these search engines provide factual information, which may be popular due to criteria such as page rank but may not always be trustworthy from the factual aspects. This paper presents a mechanism to determine trust of websites based on the semantic similarity of their multimedia content with already established and trusted websites. The proposed method allows for dynamic computation of the trust level of websites of different domains and hence overcomes the dependency on traditional user feedback methods for determining trust. In fact, our method attempts to emulate the evolving process of trust that takes place in a user??s mind. The experimental results have been provided to demonstrate the utility and practicality of the proposed method.     

A replacement of traditional insulation refractory brick by a waste-derived lightweight refractory castable

Lightweight insulation refractories are essential for high-temperature performance to reduce energy consumption. This study investigates a new insulation material, that is, solid waste rice husk ash (RHA) derived lightweight refractory castable, replacing traditional insulation refractory brick. The RHA is generated after the burning of rice husk as biomass fuel. The RHA is used as an aggregate and alkali-extracted silica sol from RHA as a binder to fabricate the insulation castable. The nanosilica containing (~30 wt%) sol is employed to synthesize the refractory castable by varying the sol amount (2.5-12.5 wt% silica from sol). The castable specimens are cast by a vibro-caster and fired at 900-1200°C in a muffle furnace. The physic-mechanical and thermal conductivity (κ) of the castable is investigated. At 1100°C with 10 wt% dry sol retaining sample shows an excellent apparent porosity (~65%), low bulk density (~ 0.8 g/cm³), and κ (0.136 W/m k) with sustainable compressive strength (6 MPa). The acquired results are a good match with the literature (other wastes-derived insulation materials) and industrial (silica insulation brick) obtained data. These promising outcomes may inspire the refractory industries for using RHA as an aggregate and RHA extracted sol as a binder for making insulation castable.