100 research outputs found
Can the renewed interest in ultra-long-range passenger flights be satisfied by the current generation of civil aircraft?
A number of full service network carriers have recently stated their ambition to develop certain ultra-long-range (ULR) routes, such as Doha to Auckland, Dubai to Auckland, Dubai to Panama City, Singapore to San Francisco, Singapore to New York, all of which require a great circle distance between 7,000–9,000 nautical miles (nm) with an estimated travel time between 15 and 20 hours. This paper examines the capability of the current generation of wide-bodied passenger aircraft to satisfy this evolving strategy, and the impact, if any, on the provision of air cargo transportation. An exploratory study is presented herein based on an assessment of each aircraft type’s payload-range envelope, taken from the appropriate Aircraft Airports Handling Characteristics Manual. The key findings reveal that airlines wishing to pursue this ultra-long-range strategy have a surprisingly limited choice of current-generation passenger aircraft which are capable of flying the desired mission profile without compromising significantly on passenger numbers and cargo payload
E-QED: Electrical Bug Localization During Post-Silicon Validation Enabled by Quick Error Detection and Formal Methods
During post-silicon validation, manufactured integrated circuits are
extensively tested in actual system environments to detect design bugs. Bug
localization involves identification of a bug trace (a sequence of inputs that
activates and detects the bug) and a hardware design block where the bug is
located. Existing bug localization practices during post-silicon validation are
mostly manual and ad hoc, and, hence, extremely expensive and time consuming.
This is particularly true for subtle electrical bugs caused by unexpected
interactions between a design and its electrical state. We present E-QED, a new
approach that automatically localizes electrical bugs during post-silicon
validation. Our results on the OpenSPARC T2, an open-source
500-million-transistor multicore chip design, demonstrate the effectiveness and
practicality of E-QED: starting with a failed post-silicon test, in a few hours
(9 hours on average) we can automatically narrow the location of the bug to
(the fan-in logic cone of) a handful of candidate flip-flops (18 flip-flops on
average for a design with ~ 1 Million flip-flops) and also obtain the
corresponding bug trace. The area impact of E-QED is ~2.5%. In contrast,
deter-mining this same information might take weeks (or even months) of mostly
manual work using traditional approaches
Postoperative air leak grading is useful to predict prolonged air leak after pulmonary lobectomy
Taking a walk: the female tourist experience
This feminist, qualitative study explores the experiences of female tourists who like to walk during their holiday. The findings highlight that women’s full access to the benefits of walking whilst on holiday are constrained by their feelings of vulnerability and their perceptions of possible risk if walking alone, particularly at night and in isolated spaces. In order to cope with perceived risk, participants employed a number of safeguarding and self-surveillance strategies. This study therefore supports other research on female tourists that highlight the differences among male and female tourist experiences, and that point to the measures women take to keep themselves safe
Quality standards for the management of alcohol-related liver disease: Consensus recommendations from the British Association for the Study of the Liver and British Society of Gastroenterology ARLD special interest group
Are there independent predisposing factors for postoperative infections following open heart surgery?
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Nosocomial infections after cardiac surgery represent serious complications associated with substantial morbidity, mortality and economic burden. This study was undertaken to evaluate the frequency, characteristics, and risk factors of microbiologically documented nosocomial infections after cardiac surgery in a Cardio-Vascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>All patients who underwent open heart surgery between May 2006 and March 2008 were enrolled in this prospective study. Pre-, intra- and postoperative variables were collected and examined as possible risk factors for development of nosocomial infections. The diagnosis of infection was always microbiologically confirmed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Infection occurred in 24 of 172 patients (13.95%). Out of 172 patients, 8 patients (4.65%) had superficial wound infection at the sternotomy site, 5 patients (2.9%) had central venous catheter infection, 4 patients (2.32%) had pneumonia, 9 patients (5.23%) had bacteremia, one patient (0.58%) had mediastinitis, one (0.58%) had harvest surgical site infection, one (0.58%) had urinary tract infection, and another one patient (0.58%) had other major infection. The mortality rate was 25% among the patients with infection and 3.48% among all patients who underwent cardiac surgery compared with 5.4% of patients who did not develop early postoperative infection after cardiac surgery. Culture results demonstrated equal frequencies of gram-positive cocci and gram-negative bacteria. A backward stepwise multivariable logistic regression model analysis identified diabetes mellitus (OR 5.92, CI 1.56 to 22.42, p = 0.009), duration of mechanical ventilation (OR 1.30, CI 1.005 to 1.69, p = 0.046), development of severe complications in the CICU (OR 18.66, CI 3.36 to 103.61, p = 0.001) and re-admission to the CVICU (OR 8.59, CI 2.02 to 36.45, p = 0.004) as independent risk factors associated with development of nosocomial infection after cardiac surgery.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We concluded that diabetes mellitus, the duration of mechanical ventilation, the presence of complications irrelevant to the infection during CVICU stay and CVICU re-admission are independent risk factors for the development of postoperative infection in cardiac surgery patients.</p
Metabolically Favorable Remodeling of Human Adipose Tissue by Human Adenovirus Type 36
OBJECTIVE—Experimental infection of rats with human adenovirus type 36 (Ad-36) promotes adipogenesis and improves insulin sensitivity in a manner reminiscent of the pharmacologic effect of thiozolinediones. To exploit the potential of the viral proteins as a therapeutic target for treating insulin resistance, this study investigated the ability of Ad-36 to induce metabolically favorable changes in human adipose tissue
Free vibration analysis of an embarked rotating composite shaft using the hp-version of the FEM
Quality standards for the management of alcohol-related liver disease: consensus recommendations from the British Association for the Study of the Liver and British Society of Gastroenterology ARLD special interest group
Objective Alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) is the most
common cause of liver-related ill health and liver-related
deaths in the UK, and deaths from ALD have doubled
in the last decade. The management of ALD requires
treatment of both liver disease and alcohol use; this
necessitates effective and constructive multidisciplinary
working. To support this, we have developed quality
standard recommendations for the management of ALD,
based on evidence and consensus expert opinion, with the
aim of improving patient care.
Design A multidisciplinary group of experts from the
British Association for the Study of the Liver and British
Society of Gastroenterology ALD Special Interest Group
developed the quality standards, with input from the
British Liver Trust and patient representatives.
Results The standards cover three broad themes: the
recognition and diagnosis of people with ALD in primary
care and the liver outpatient clinic; the management of
acutely decompensated ALD including acute alcoholrelated hepatitis and the posthospital care of people
with advanced liver disease due to ALD. Draft quality
standards were initially developed by smaller working
groups and then an anonymous modified Delphi voting
process was conducted by the entire group to assess
the level of agreement with each statement. Statements
were included when agreement was 85% or greater.
Twenty-four quality standards were produced from this
process which support best practice. From the final
list of statements, a smaller number of auditable key
performance indicators were selected to allow services to
benchmark their practice and an audit tool provided.
Conclusion It is hoped that services will review their
practice against these recommendations and key
performance indicators and institute service development
where needed to improve the care of patients with ALD
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