Pseudo-saturating power converter

Relative performance of three basic configurations of electronic conversion units (saturating, pseudo-saturating, nonsaturating) requiring low power levels is compared. Pseudo-saturating mode exhibits best overall performance, nonsaturating a close second, saturating a poor third

Evaluating the reliability of point estimates of wetland reference evaporation

The Penman-Monteith formulation of evaporation has been criticised for its reliance upon point estimates so that areal estimates of wetland evaporation based upon single weather stations may be misleading. Typically, wetlands comprise a complex mosaic of land cover types from each of which evaporative rates may differ. The need to account for wetland patches when monitoring hydrological fluxes has been noted. This paper presents work carried out over a wet grassland in Southern England. The significance of fetch on actual evaporation was examined using the approach adopted by Gash (1986) based upon surface roughness to estimate the fraction of evaporation sensed from a specified distance upwind of the monitoring station. This theoretical analysis (assuming near-neutral conditions) reveals that the fraction of evaporation contributed by the surrounding area increases steadily to a value of 77% at a distance of 224 m and thereafter declines rapidly. Thus, point climate observations may not reflect surface conditions at greater distances. This result was tested through the deployment of four weather stations on the wetland. The resultant data suggested that homogeneous conditions prevailed so that the central weather station provided reliable areal estimates of reference evaporation during the observation period March–April 1999. This may be a result of not accounting for high wind speeds and roughness found in wetlands that lead to widespread atmospheric mixing. It should be noted this analysis was based upon data collected during the period March-April when wind direction was constant (westerly) and the land surface was moist. There could be more variation at other times of the year that would lead to greater heterogeneity in actual evaporation.</p> <p style='line-height: 20px;'><b>Keywords: </b>evaporation, Penman-Monteith, automatic weather station, fetch, wetland</p

Efficiency of using community organisations as catalysts for recruitment to continence promotion trials

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 The Authors.Background - A major challenge for determining the effectiveness of community-based continence promotion campaigns is recruitment of a representative sample of incontinent participants who have not previously sought care. Purpose - To evaluate the efficiency of engaging community organisations as catalysts for recruitment of community-dwelling older women with incontinence to the ‘Continence across Continents’ randomised controlled trial. Methods - Seniors’ and women’s community-based organisations throughout the United Kingdom were solicited by telephone or email to assist recruitment for an open-label cluster randomised controlled trial testing three experimental continence promotion interventions and a control intervention for incontinent older women. Women aged 60 years and older who experienced at least weekly urinary incontinence and who had never sought treatment were eligible to participate. The response rate of the organisations and enrolment rate of eligible participants attending the continence promotion workshops were recorded. Differences in recruitment efficiency by intervention group were ascertained using analysis of variance statistics. Results - We contacted 408 community organisations over a 1-year period. Seventy organisations (17%) agreed to host a workshop, 249 (61%) did not provide a response, and 89 (22%) refused. Workshops were administered in a group format to 61 organisations (15%); 667 women attended, 583 (87%) submitted the screening questionnaire, and 437 (66%) met eligibility criteria for inclusion. A total of 192 women consented to participate in the trial, yielding a 44% recruitment efficiency among workshop attendees known to be eligible, with no significant difference in enrolment rates between groups. However, the mean participant recruitment rate per number of attendees at each workshop was only 29%, varying substantially between groups from 19% to 37%, with the lowest rate observed for the control group. The mean annual recruitment rate expressed as the number of enrolled participants per community organisation contacted was 0.5. Limitations - Reasons for women’s non-response were not collected. The findings may be country specific. Conclusions - The recruitment rate for a continence promotion trial among older women known to be eligible and attending workshops hosted by local community organisations was high (44%). Strategies are needed to bolster community organisations’ involvement in health promotion trials in general and for continence issues in particular

Large Deployable Reflector (LDR) system concept and technology definition study. Analysis of space station requirements for LDR

A study was conducted to determine how the Large Deployable Reflector (LDR) might benefit from the use of the space station for assembly, checkout, deployment, servicing, refurbishment, and technology development. Requirements that must be met by the space station to supply benefits for a selected scenario are summarized. Quantitative and qualitative data are supplied. Space station requirements for LDR which may be utilized by other missions are identified. A technology development mission for LDR is outlined and requirements summarized. A preliminary experiment plan is included. Space Station Data Base SAA 0020 and TDM 2411 are updated

Effectiveness of continence promotion for older women via community organisations: A cluster randomised trial

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/Objectives: The primary objective of this cluster randomised controlled trial was to compare the effectiveness of the three experimental continence promotion interventions against a control intervention on urinary symptom improvement in older women with untreated incontinence recruited from community organisations. A second objective was to determine whether changes in incontinence-related knowledge and new uptake of risk-modifying behaviours explain these improvements. Setting: 71 community organisations across the UK. Participants: 259 women aged 60 years and older with untreated incontinence entered the trial; 88% completed the 3-month follow-up. Interventions: The three active interventions consisted of a single 60 min group workshop on (1) continence education (20 clusters, 64 women); (2) evidence-based self-management (17 clusters, 70 women); or (3) combined continence education and self-management (17 clusters, 61 women). The control intervention was a single 60 min educational group workshop on memory loss, polypharmacy and osteoporosis (17 clusters, 64 women). Primary and secondary outcome measures: The primary outcome was self-reported improvement in incontinence 3 months postintervention at the level of the individual. The secondary outcome was change in the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire (ICIQ) from baseline to 3-month follow-up. Changes in incontinence-related knowledge and behaviours were also assessed. Results: The highest rate of urinary symptom improvement occurred in the combined intervention group (66% vs 11% of the control group, prevalence difference 55%, 95% CI 43% to 67%, intracluster correlation 0). 30% versus 6% of participants reported significant improvement respectively (prevalence difference 23%, 95% CI 10% to 36%, intracluster correlation 0). The number-needed-to-treat was 2 to achieve any improvement in incontinence symptoms, and 5 to attain significant improvement. Compared to controls, participants in the combined intervention reported an adjusted mean 2.05 point (95% CI 0.87 to 3.24) greater improvement on the ICIQ from baseline to 3-month follow-up. Changes in knowledge and self-reported risk-reduction behaviours paralleled rates of improvement in all intervention arms. Conclusions: Continence education combined with evidence-based self-management improves symptoms of incontinence among untreated older women. Community organisations represent an untapped vector for delivering effective continence promotion interventions.Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute on Aging and the Economic and Social Research Council (UK

Methods for the evaluation of alternative disaster warning systems

For each of the methods identified, a theoretical basis is provided and an illustrative example is described. The example includes sufficient realism and detail to enable an analyst to conduct an evaluation of other systems. The methods discussed in the study include equal capability cost analysis, consumers' surplus, and statistical decision theory

Methods for the evaluation of alternative disaster warning systems. Executive summary

Methods for estimating the economic costs and benefits of the transmission-reception and reception-action segments of a disaster warning system (DWS) are described. Methods were identified for the evaluation of the transmission and reception portions of alternative disaster warning systems. Example analyses using the methods identified were performed

Sintered aluminium heat pipe (SAHP)

This work is the product of an ongoing PhD project in the School of the Built and Natural Environment of Northumbria University in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and Thermacore Europe Ltd. The achievements at the end of the first year are summarized. The main objective of the project is to develop an aluminum ammonia heat pipe with a sintered wick structure. Currently available ammonia heat pipes mainly use extruded axially grooved aluminum tubes as a capillary wick. There have been a few attempts of employing porous steel or nickel wicks in steel tubes with ammonia as the working fluid (Bai, Lin et al. 2009)although it is a common practice in loop heat pipes but there is no report of aluminum-ammonia heat pipes porous aluminium wick structures. The main barrier is the difficulty of sintering aluminum powders to manufacture porous wicks. So far during this project promising sintered aluminum heat pipe samples have been manufactured using the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technique with various wick characteristics. This SLM method has proven to be capable of manufacturing very complicated wick structures with different thickness, porosity, permeability and pore sizes in different regions of a heat pipe. In addition the entire heat pipe including the end cap, outer tube wall, wick and the fill tube can be generated in a single process

The impact of employment on housing prices: detailed evidence from FDI in Ireland

Access to employment is one of the most valuable amenities offered by cities. In urban economics, this is the principal driver of the bid-rent gradient and is a key determinant of housing prices and land values. However, little is known about the causal effect of employment on housing prices, due to the problem of identification. This study presents the first causal estimates of employment changes on housing prices, both sales and rental. It does this by using a purpose-built spatially granular dataset of 1.4 million housing prices and FDI employment, covering Ireland 2007–2013. Identification rests on a combination of rich spatio-temporal variation due to the abundance of FDI in Ireland, a rich set of location controls and an inelastic housing supply in the period covered. The main results show that 1–2 years after 1000 extra jobs have been created, monthly rents in nearby properties will be between 0.5% and 1% higher. The effect on prices is at least 2% but less consistent across specifications. On average, net job creation in export-oriented FDI firms 2009–2013 added roughly €48 million to the stock of wealth of owner occupied real estate and €8 million to the stock of wealth of the rental sector. We also estimate that the aggregate effect of the stock of FDI jobs in 2013 on Irish housing prices is €440 million, or just over 1%

Rsr1 Palmitoylation and GTPase Activity Status Differentially Coordinate Nuclear, Septin, and Vacuole Dynamics in Candida albicans

Peer reviewedPublisher PD