Variations in the management of pneumonia in pediatric emergency departments: Compliance with the guidelines

Objective: We sought to assess compliance with evidence-based guidelines for the management of pediatric pneumonia, including the variations in tests ordered and antimicrobials prescribed. Our primary hypothesis was that compliance with the treatment recommendations from the most current guidelines would be low for antimicrobial prescriptions. Methods: We conducted a chart review at the Children\u27s Hospital in London, Ont., to assess variation in the management of pediatric pneumonia. All patients aged 3 months to 18 years seen at the pediatric emergency department between Apr. 1, 2006, and Mar. 31, 2007, with a diagnosis of pneumonia were eligible for inclusion in the study. Results: Compliance with management guidelines was 59.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 53%-66%, n = 211) in children 5-18 years old and 83.0% (95% CI 80%-86%, n = 605) in children 3 months to 5 years old. Significant variation existed in the choice of antimicrobial agent for children with pneumonia, with nonrecommended agents frequently prescribed. Conclusion: Significant variation existed in the management of pediatric pneumonia, and adherence to guidelines was low for the group of patients aged 5-18 years. Future studies should attempt to provide guidance to distinguish between viral and bacterial etiology to allow judicious use of antimicrobials

Modeling and Simulation for PVDF-based Pyroelectric Energy Harvester

Energy harvesting technology allows the capturing of unused ambient energy such as solar, wind, thermal, strain and kinetic, energy of gas and liquid flows which is then converted into another form of usable energy. This paper focuses on the thermal-electrical energy harvesting based on pyroelectric effect. Pyroelectric materials generate a voltage, when subjected temperature variation. The pyroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films were fabricated and characterized for pyroelectric and dielectric parameters. Using the foregoing parameters, the energy-harvesting capacity has been theoretically explored by capturing thermal energy available in the environment of Huntsville (pavement), Saudi Arabia (ambient) and MARS (ambient). The predicted maximum cumulative voltage by the end of a 300 hours cycle is approximately 0.13, 0.7 and 7.7 volts for Huntsville and Saudi Arabia and MARS, respectively for the PVDF based 10 cm2 pyro-elements. The results indicate that the electrical energy harvesting via pyroelectricity holds promise for powering autonomous low-duty electric devices. Furthermore, the mathematical modeling and numerical simulations can be helpful in designing of pyroelectric micro-power generators

Adapted LZW Protocol for ‎ ECG Data Compression

خوارزمية الـ(LZW) هي واحدة من طرق ضغط البيانات المستخدمة في عدة تطبيقات كضغط بيانات تخطيط القلب الكهربائي( ECG) لتقليل حجمها مما يسهل عملية نقلها عبر الشبكة. بما ان بيانات الـ(ECG) الخاصة بالمرضى تنقل عبر الشبكة طول الوقت لذلك ظهرت الحاجة الى تقليل حجمها من اجل ضمان وصولها بالسرعة الممكنة  لقاعدة البيانات. في هذه البحث نحن نهتم بطريقة الـ (LZW) التي هي واحدة من اهم واشهر طرق ضغط البيانات وقد اقترحنا بروتوكول لتحسين الطريقة التي تعتمدها خوارزمية الـ(LZW) في خزن المؤشرات الخاصة بالبيانات المضغوطة. البروتوكول المقترح يمكن ان يقلل حجم المؤشر لخوارزمية الـ(LZW). تم اعتماد خمس عينات اخذت من بنك المعلومات الخاص بـ(Physionet) لغرض اختبار البروتوكول المقترح. وقد اظهرت نتائج الاختبارت العملية ان البروتوكول المقترح يعطي نسبة ضغط افضل لبيانات الـ(ECG) مقارنة بطريقة الـ(LZW) الاصلية.Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) is a data compression method, which is adopted by many applications likes Electrocardiography (ECG) data to reduce the size of transferred data. Because of the ECG data moves over the network all the time, which means there is a need to reduce its size to improve the network performance. In this paper, we concerned with the LZW method, which is one of the important and famous data compression method. We propose a protocol to improve the way in which the LZW saving an index for the compressed data. The proposed protocol could reduce the size of the index in LZW method. Five samples data groups provided by Physionet are used for evaluation. The experimental result shows that the proposed protocol can give best compression ratio compared with the original method

Oscillation Effects On Neutrinos From The Early Phase Of a Nearby Supernova

Neutrinos emitted during stellar core collapse leading to a supernova are primarily of the electron neutrino type at source which may undergo oscillation between flavor eigenstates during propagation to an earth-bound detector. Although the number of neutrinos emitted during the pre-bounce collapse phase is much smaller than that emitted in the post-bounce phase (in which all flavors of neutrinos are emitted), a nearby supernova event may nevertheless register a substantial number of detections from the pre-bounce phase at SuperKamiokande (SK) and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). The calorimetric measurement of the supernova neutrino fluence from this stage via the charge current and neutral current detection channels in SNO and the corresponding distortion of detected spectrum in SK over the no-oscillation spectrum, can probe information about neutrino mass difference and mixing which are illustrated here in terms of two- and three-flavor oscillation models

Eleven years of radio monitoring of the Type IIn supernova SN 1995N

We present radio observations of the optically bright Type IIn supernova SN 1995N. We observed the SN at radio wavelengths with the Very Large Array (VLA) for 11 years. We also observed it at low radio frequencies with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at various epochs within $6.5-10$ years since explosion. Although there are indications of an early optically thick phase, most of the data are in the optically thin regime so it is difficult to distinguish between synchrotron self absorption (SSA) and free-free absorption (FFA) mechanisms. However, the information from other wavelengths indicates that the FFA is the dominant absorption process. Model fits of radio emission with the FFA give reasonable physical parameters. Making use of X-ray and optical observations, we derive the physical conditions of the shocked ejecta and the shocked CSM.Comment: 22 pages, 2 tables, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

Discussion on a possible neutrino detector located in India

We have identified some important and worthwhile physics opportunitites with a possible neutrino detector located in India. Particular emphasis is placed on the geographical advantage with a stress on the complimentary aspects with respect to other neutrino detectors already in operation.Comment: 9 pages; arXiv copy of published proceedings contributio