Water depth and slush drag instrumentation

Water depth and slush drag instrumentatio

Survey of psychosocial support provided by UK paediatric oncology centres

Aim: To obtain a comprehensive overview of current patterns of psychosocial support provided by National Health Service ( NHS) paediatric oncology treatment centres across the UK. Methods: A postal questionnaire was sent to co-ordinators in the UK Children's Cancer Study Group ( a professional body that is responsible for the organisation of treatment and management of childhood cancer in the UK) in 21 treatment centres and three separate Teenage Cancer Trus units. A range of psychosocial topics were explored, including ratio of staff providing support to patients; facilities provided for children and families; psychosocial support services such as support groups; information provision; and transition support. Results: There were many good areas of support provided by centres, but there was also a lack of standard practices and procedures. All centres employed social workers, play specialists, and paediatric oncology outreach nurses, but patient to staff ratios varied across centres. The poorest staff provision was among psychologists, where patient to staff ratios ranged from 132:1 to 1100:1. Written information was standard practice, while provision of other types of information (audiovisual, online) varied; none of the centres provided audio information specifically for children/young people. Conclusion: This variability in practices among centres frequently occurred, as centres rarely had procedures formally agreed or recorded in writing. British government policy currently seeks to develop standards and guidelines of care throughout the National Health Service. This study further demonstrates the importance of standards and the need to agree guidelines for the provision of psychosocial support for children/young people and their families throughout the course of the illness

Statistical expansions and locally uniform Fréchet differentiability

Estimators which have locally uniform expansions are shown in this paper to be asymptotically equivalent to M-estimators. The M-functionals corresponding to these M-estimators are seen to be locally uniformly Fréchet differentiable. Other conditions for M-functionals to be locally uniformly Fréchet differentiable are given. An example of a commonly used estimator which is robust against outliers is given to illustrate that the locally uniform expansion need not be valid

Health and the Transition from Employment to Retirement

The relationship between employment and retirement is changing dramatically. In contrast to an earlier pattern of relatively stable career employment leading to retirement around age 65, increasing numbers of men and women are leaving their major employment situation earlier. The process of retirement therefore takes on new meaning and duration. The segment of a person's life between stable career employment and permanent retirement at pensionable age can be quite disruptive, involving difficult job searches, employment at lower levels than before, lower wages and repeated job displacement. There is virtually no research about the effects of life course instability in mid- to late-life on health, but limited research on instability early in the working life shows that instability leads to increased mortality. The possibility that labour force instability later in life has adverse health consequences is great and merits further investigation.health; employment; retirement

Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing: Perceptions vs. Reality

Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing are all important new technologies in today\u27s society that can have potentially large impacts on the environment in the future. This study was conducted to determine the differences in perceptions of Gettysburg College students regarding Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing and the reality of these topics in the real world. This paper also compares the perceptions of Environmental Studies majors/minors to the perceptions of other majors at Gettysburg College. The primary research was conducted by analyzing questions that were a part of a survey consisting of 16 questions which was administered to Gettysburg College students via Facebook class group pages and the Environmental Studies majors email alias. The study group consisted of 110 students with 31 of them being Environmental Studies majors/minors and 79 of them being non-Environmental Studies majors/minors. It was determined that there were no statistically significant differences between the Environmental Studies majors/minors and students that are other majors/minors at Gettysburg College. From our survey, we found that there is a distinct gap in knowledge on the current and future impacts on the environment from Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing. The questions that ask which power method produces more greenhouse gas emissions as well as the questions about the miles per gallon of participants’ personal vehicles were the most accurately answered. Overall, Gettysburg College students regardless of major or minor were found to have mostly inaccurate perceptions on the topics of Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing

The Effect of NAG–thiazoline on Morphology and Surface Hydrophobicity of Escherichia Coli

The β-hexosaminidase inhibitor and structural analog of the putative oxazolium reaction intermediate of lytic transglycosylases, N-acetylglucosamine thiazoline (NAG–thiazoline), was synthesized in 46% overall yield and tested as an inhibitor of Escherichia coli growth. NAG–thiazoline, at concentrations up to 1 mg/ml, was not found to affect the viability of E. coli DH5α

The role of the energy equation in the fragmentation of protostellar discs during stellar encounters

In this paper, we use high-resolution smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations to investigate the response of a marginally stable self-gravitating protostellar disc to a close parabolic encounter with a companion discless star. Our main aim is to test whether close brown dwarfs or massive planets can form out of the fragmentation of such discs. We follow the thermal evolution of the disc by including the effects of heating due to compression and shocks and a simple prescription for cooling and find results that contrast with previous isothermal simulations. In the present case we find that fragmentation is inhibited by the interaction, due to the strong effect of tidal heating, which results in a strong stabilization of the disc. A similar behaviour was also previously observed in other simulations involving discs in binary systems. As in the case of isolated discs, it appears that the condition for fragmentation ultimately depends on the cooling rate.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, accepted in MNRA

MIMO nonlinear PID predictive controller

A class of nonlinear generalised predictive controllers (NGPC) is derived for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear systems with offset or steady-state response error. The MIMO composite controller consists of an optimal NGPC and a nonlinear disturbance observer. The design of the nonlinear disturbance observer to estimate the offset is particularly simple, as is the associated proof of overall nonlinear closed-loop system stability. Moreover, the transient error response of the disturbance observer can be arbitrarily specified by simple design parameters. Very satisfactory performance of the proposed MIMO nonlinear predictive controller is demonstrated for a three-link nonlinear robotic manipulator example

Magnetically modulated accretion in T Tauri stars

We examine how accretion on to T Tauri stars may be modulated by a time-dependent `magnetic gate' where the inner edge of the accretion disc is disrupted by a varying stellar field. We show that magnetic field variations on time-scales shorter than 10^5 yr can modulate the accretion flow, thus providing a possible mechanism both for the marked photometric variability of T Tauri stars and for the possible conversion of T Tauri stars between classical and weak line status. We thus suggest that archival data relating to the spectrophotometric variability of T Tauri stars may provide an indirect record of magnetic activity cycles in low-mass pre-main-sequence stars.Comment: LaTeX file (requires mn.sty), 4 pages, no figures or tables. To appear in MNRAS