The high speed buffer board : a SAIL EIA-485 communications accelerator card for the vector measuring current meter

A High Speed Buffer Board (HSBB) has been developed for the Vector Measuring Current Meter (VMCM) to implement the transmission of data at 9600 baud over an EIA-485 link. The HSBB significantly extends the VMCM communication functionality, which was previously limited to 300 baud transmission via 20 mA current loop or FSK telemetry. The increased speed allows rapid sampling of a large number of current meters on a common cable and the EIA-485 circuitry, which was designed for low power operation, provides a useful multipoint communication method for data transmission over long cable lengths. SAIL protocol (IEEE 997) was utilized to coordinate data transfer by the instruments on a common link. An MC68HC11 microcontroller resides in the VMCM, buffering data it receives at 300 baud from the VMCM UART. In response to a jumper selectable SAIL address, the MC68HC11 offloads the data at 9600 baud via EIA-485 to the SAIL controller. Synchronous data collection from many instruments is ensured by the SAIL synoptic set command and an embedded resynchronization/reset command. The low power consumption allows deployments of six months or more with a standard VMCM battery stack.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-84-C-0134 and Grant No. N00014-90-J-1495

Bowling Together Again: Facilitating the Initiation of Collective Action through Awareness of Others

Often within communities there is sufficient interest in group-activities and yet they fail to occur because of insufficient individual initiative. This could be due to diffusion of responsibility or uncertainty about the availability of potential participants. Providing information about the number of interested individuals has conflicting implications, and hence an ambiguous impact on the likelihood of activities occurring. Our experiment examines the impact of providing information about community interest on activity initiation. Subjects (n=2000) were given information about the level of interest in a possible activity within their community and the ability to initiate its planning. Results indicate that displaying sufficient interest in an activity is positively associated with willingness to initiate planning. This suggests that Internet applications which 1) provide awareness of shared activity interest and 2) reduce effort required to initiate activity planning could boost collective action and improve community life

Use of measures of socioeconomic deprivation in planning primary health care workforce and defining health care need in Australia

Australia is in the midst of significant health reform, of which equity and access and the role of primary health care is of priority. Current measures to address workforce maldistribution are determined geographically. This fails to recognise the diversity of need and inequity within areas. Nationally and internationally there is growing expertise in and evidence of the power of geographical information systems (GIS) in primary health care policy development, service delivery and evaluation. This study sought to examine whether measures of remoteness areas adequately reveal high need populations, measured against socioeconomic disadvantage and physician to population ratios using GIS methodology. Australia is in the midst of significant health reform, of which equity and access and the role of primary health care is of priority. Current measures to address workforce maldistribution are determined geographically. This fails to recognise the diversity of need and inequity within areas. Nationally and internationally there is growing expertise in and evidence of the power of geographical information systems (GIS) in primary health care policy development, service delivery and evaluation. This study sought to examine whether measures of remoteness areas adequately reveal high need populations, measured against socioeconomic disadvantage and physician to population ratios using GIS methodology.The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development Strategy

Dielectric monitoring of mammalian cells in a bioreactor

Dielectric spectroscopy is an analytical technology with the potential to revolutionize the control of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The frequency-dependent profile of ionic polarization of cells in response to an alternating electromagnetic field changes with respect to cell type, metabolism and media conductivity. The method has been adopted to measure the growth of cells through in situ capacitance measurements at a single frequency. However the power of such measurements can be enhanced through the use of a dielectrophoretic flow cytometer (DEP) that can measure the changing trajectory of single cells passing through a microbore tube subjected to an electromagnetic field controlled by a bank of electrodes. We have used this principle to analyze cells in a bioprocess to identify changing sub-populations of cells during apoptosis. This has led to the early detection of changes that lead to the eventual loss of productivity and viability. The presentation will include comparative data from five alternative measurements of cell growth and viability. Each method provides a different profile which can be used to decipher changes in viability and metabolism of the cells during the production process. The value of these methods will be discussed in relation to the production of monoclonal antibodies from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The data shows that dielectric cell monitoring provides unique information that can be related to more conventional methods of biochemical monitoring by fluorescent agents. At the on-set of apoptosis of cells in a bioreactor sub-populations were identified with characteristic dielectric properties that were quantified by a force index based upon their behavior in the electromagnetic field. The sub-populations were comparable to those of cells in early, mid and late apoptosis as identified by fluorescence staining. DEP offers a means of identifying cell characteristics without the use of markers and identifies loss of cell viability well before dye exclusion methods based upon membrane damage

Energy Expenditure and Physical Activity in Prader–Willi Syndrome Comparison With Obese Subjects

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Butler, Merlin G. et al. “Energy Expenditure and Physical Activity in Prader–Willi Syndrome: Comparison With Obese Subjects.” American journal of medical genetics. Part A 143A.5 (2007): 449–459., which has been published in final form at 10.1002/ajmg.a.31507. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by hypotonia, suck and feeding difficulties, hypogonadism, small hands and feet, developmental delay, hyperphagia and early childhood obesity and a particular facial appearance. The obesity associated with PWS is the result of a chronic imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure (EE) due to hyperphagia, decreased physical activity, reduced metabolic rate and an inability to vomit. EE is affected by body composition as well as exercise. Individuals with PWS have a lower lean body mass (LBM) compared with controls which may contribute to reduced basal level EE. To determine the relationship among body composition, activity levels and metabolic rates, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and a whole-room respiration chamber were used to measure body composition, total EE (TEE), resting EE (REE), physical activity, and mechanical work (MW) during an 8 hr monitoring period. The chamber consisted of a live-in whole-room indirect calorimeter equipped with a force platform floor to allow simultaneous measurement of EE, physical activity, and work efficiency during spontaneous activities and standardized exercise. Participants with PWS (27 with 15q11–q13 deletion and 21 with maternal disomy 15 with an average age of 23 years) had significantly decreased TEE by 20% and reduced LBM compared to 24 obese subjects. Similarly, REE was significantly reduced by 16% in the individuals with PWS relative to the comparison subjects. Total MW performed during the 8 hr monitoring period was significantly reduced by 35% in the PWS group. The energy cost of physical activity is related to the duration, intensity and type of activity and the metabolic efficiency of the individual. After adjusting group differences in LBM by analysis of variance, TEE and REE were no longer different between the two groups. Our data indicate that there is a significant reduction of EE in individuals with PWS resulting from reduced activity but also from lower energy utilization due to reduced LBM which consists primarily of muscle

Regional variation in the flexural properties of the equine hoof wall

The equine hoof wall is a hard, keratinous structure that transmits forces generated when the hoof connects the ground to the skeleton of the horse. During locomotion the hoof capsule is known to deform, resulting in an inward curvature of the dorsal wall and expansion of the heels. However, while researchers have studied the tensile and compressive properties, there is a lack of data on the flexural properties of the hoof wall in different locations around the hoof capsule. In this study, the flexural properties and hydration status of the hoof wall were investigated in two orthogonal directions, in different locations around the hoof capsule. The hoof was divided into three regions: the dorsal-most aspect (toe), the medial and lateral regions (quarters) and the heels caudally. Beams were cut both perpendicular (transverse) and parallel (longitudinal) to the orientation of the tubules. Differences in the mechanical properties were then investigated using three-point bending tests. There were considerable differences in the flexural properties around the hoof capsule; transverse beams from the heel were 45% more compliant than those from the toe region. This corresponded with changes in the hydration of the hoof wall; beams from the heel region were more hydrated (28.2 ± 0.60%) than those from the toe (24.2 ± 0.44%; P < 0.01). Regional variation in the water content is thought to help explain differences in the flexural properties. Mechanical data are further discussed in relation to variation in the structure and loading of the hoof wall