The Reliability of Selected Techniques in Clinical Arthrometrics

A number of studies which have examined reliability of spinal assessment procedures in manual therapy are reviewed. The tests examined were Passive Accessory Intervertebral Movements, Passive Physiological Intervertebral Movements, Straight Leg Raise and Forward Flexion. In general, tests of pain were found to be much more reproducible than tests of compliance. Straight Leg Raise and Forward Flexion tests were consistently more reliable than the Passive Intervertebral Movement tests. Possible explanations for these findings are advanced. The role of tests of compliance based on passive intervertebral movements in clinical decision-making may need to be re-examined. An appendix on reliability theory is included for the uninitiated reader

A Critical Review of New Mobility Services for Urban Transport

The growing pressure on urban passenger transport systems has increased the demand for new and innovative solutions to increase its efficiency. One approach to tackle this challenge has been the slow but steady shift towards shared mobility services (car-, bike-sharing etc.). Building on these new modes and the developments in information and communication technologies, the concept of “Mobility as a Service” (MaaS) has recently come to light and offers convenient door-to-door transport without the need to own a private vehicle. The term Mobility as a Service (MaaS) stands for buying mobility services based on consumer needs instead of buying the means of mobility. In recent years, various MaaS schemes have been arisen around the world. The objective of this paper is to review these newly existing mobility services and develop an index to evaluate the level of mobility integration for each based on the assumption that higher level of integration is more appealing to travellers. The review presented in this paper allows a comparison among the schemes and provides the background and the key points of MaaS systems that the research community could use for designing surveys. It also provides significant insights to transport operators and authorities on the elements they should take into account to apply an attractive MaaS scheme that could effectively shift demand away from private vehicles

Feasibility Study for “Mobility as a Service” concept in London

Novel mobility services that heavily rely on technological advances could contribute to seamless mobility. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is such a concept. The objective of the FS-MaaS project is to propose the design of a MaaS concept for London, the MaaS-London, and examine its feasibility. To work towards the concept of MaaS-London, first, the supply and the demand sides of the London transport market are analysed. There are a variety of mobility services supplied in London such as car clubs (car sharing), ride sharing, bike sharing, public transport, rail and taxi which altogether make London an ideal ground to exploit MaaS-London. The MaaS-London is an integrated platform that includes registration and package selection, intermodal journey planning, booking, smart ticketing and payment functions so that the entire chain of transport can be managed in this centralised platform. The most outstanding feature of MaaS-London is the provision of mobility packages, which consist of tailored bundles of mobility services customised to individual needs. The feasibility study indicates that the introduction of MaaS-London will benefit both the supply and the demand side. Transport operators will benefit by creating a larger market via the integrated platform. Travellers will also welcome the concept due to travel expense and time reduction, and better service experience. MaaS-London is a feasible product that can well serve London transport market and contribute to London’s 2020 vision

Prospects of Semiconductor Terahertz Pulse Sources

Extremely high pump-to-terahertz (THz) conversion efficiencies up to 0.7% were demonstrated in recent experiments with ZnTe THz pulse sources. Such high efficiencies could be achieved by pumping at an infrared wavelength sufficiently long to suppress both two- and three-photon absorption and the associated free-carrier absorption at THz frequencies. Here, high-field high-energy THz pulse generation by optical rectification in semiconductor nonlinear materials is investigated by numerical simulations. Basic design aspects of infrared-pumped semiconductor THz sources are discussed. Optimal pumping and phase-matching conditions are given. Multicycle THz pulse generation for particle acceleration is discussed

Macroeconomic and structural policies in the republic of Belarus: a retrospective analysis, problems, and directions of development

Presented is a retrospective analysis of the macroeconomic and structural policies in the Republic of Belarus in the context of external shocks. Identified are possible directions and certain measures of their adjustments in the short-term and medium-term.Представлен ретроспективный анализ макроэкономической и структурной политики в Республике Беларусь в условиях внешних шоков, определены возможные направления и отдельные меры по ее корректировке в краткосрочной и среднесрочной перспективе

Properties of quantizer and dequantizer operators for qudit states and parametric down-conversion

We review the method of quantizers and dequantizers to construct an invertible map of the density operators onto functions including probability distributions and discuss in detail examples of qubit and qutrit states. The biphoton states existing in the process of parametric down-conversion are studied in the probability representation of quantum mechanics

Comparison of 25‐hydroxyvitamin D concentration in chimpanzee dried blood spots and serum

BackgroundDried blood spots (DBS) are used in human medicine to measure total 25‐hydroxyvitamin D (25‐OHD) in the blood. However, this easy and affordable sampling technique has not been evaluated in primates to measure vitamin D concentrations.ObjectivesWe aimed to compare 25‐OHD measurements in chimpanzee serum at two different laboratories and determine the precision and accuracy of the DBS method by comparing DBS and serum results.MethodsBlood samples from 17 captive chimpanzees were collected, and 25‐OHD3 and 25‐OHD2 were measured in serum at two accredited laboratories using liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. The same analytes were measured on DBS cards, and results were compared with that of serum. Data were assessed using the Spearman correlation, Deming regression, and Bland‐Altman analyses. ResultsThe correlation coefficient between the two measurements in serum was r s = .51 (P = .04), and the mean bias was −1.25 ± 14.83. When comparing 25‐OHD concentrations measured in DBS and serum at the same laboratory, the r s was 0.7 (P = .002), and the mean bias was 1.42 ± 14.58. Estimated intra‐assay and inter‐assay coefficients of variation for DBS results were 6% and 12.6%, respectively. ConclusionsAlthough substantial analytical variability was found in 25‐OHD measurements regardless of the sample type, the identification of both constant and proportional error and wider limits of agreement with the DBS technique makes the interpretation of DBS results challenging, especially for values close to clinical cut‐off points. The DBS and serum methods were not interchangeable, and further studies are needed to validate DBS samples for vitamin D measurements in chimpanzees

Tunable Depletion Potentials Driven By Shape Variation Of Surfactant Micelles

Depletion interaction potentials between micron-sized colloidal particles are induced by nanometer-scale surfactant micelles composed of hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C12E6), and they are measured by video microscopy. The strength and range of the depletion interaction is revealed to arise from variations in shape anisotropy of the surfactant micelles. This shape anisotropy increases with increasing sample temperature. By fitting the colloidal interaction potentials to theoretical models, we extract micelle length and shape anisotropy as a function of temperature. This work introduces shape anisotropy tuning as a means to control interparticle interactions in colloidal suspensions, and it shows how the interparticle depletion potentials of micron-scale objects can be employed to probe the shape and size of surrounding macromolecules at the nanoscale