Consolidated List of Requirements

This document is a consolidated catalogue of requirements for the Electronic Health Care Record (EHCR) and Electronic Health Care Record Architecture (EHCRA), gleaned largely from work done in the EU Framework III and IV programmes and CEN, but also including input from other sources including world-wide standardisation initiatives. The document brings together the relevant work done into a classified inventory of requirements to inform the on-going standardisation process as well as act as a guide to future implementation of EHCRA-based systems. It is meant as a contribution both to understanding of the standard and to the work that is being considered to improve the standard. Major features include the classification into issues affecting the Health Care Record, the EHCR, EHCR processing, EHCR interchange and the sharing of health care information and EHCR systems. The principal information sources are described briefly. It is offered as documentation that is complementary to the four documents of the ENV 13606 Parts I-IV produced by CEN Pts 26,27,28,29. The requirements identified and classified in this deliverable are referenced in other deliverables

Dynamic weight parameter for the Random Early Detection (RED) in TCP networks

This paper presents the Weighted Random Early Detection (WTRED) strategy for congestion handling in TCP networks. WTRED provides an adjustable weight parameter to increase the sensitivity of the average queue size in RED gateways to the changes in the actual queue size. This modification, over the original RED proposal, helps gateways minimize the mismatch between average and actual queue sizes in router buffers. WTRED is compared with RED and FRED strategies using the NS-2 simulator. The results suggest that WTRED outperforms RED and FRED. Network performance has been measured using throughput, link utilization, packet loss and delay

Negative differential resistance due to single-electron switching

We present the multilevel fabrication and measurement of a Coulomb-blockade device displaying tunable negative differential resistance (NDR). Applications for devices displaying NDR include amplification, logic, and memory circuits. Our device consists of two Al/Al$_{x}$O$_{y}$ islands that are strongly coupled by an overlap capacitor. Our measurements agree excellently with a model based on the orthodox theory of single-electron transport.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures; submitted to AP

A Graphical Language for Proof Strategies

Complex automated proof strategies are often difficult to extract, visualise, modify, and debug. Traditional tactic languages, often based on stack-based goal propagation, make it easy to write proofs that obscure the flow of goals between tactics and are fragile to minor changes in input, proof structure or changes to tactics themselves. Here, we address this by introducing a graphical language called PSGraph for writing proof strategies. Strategies are constructed visually by "wiring together" collections of tactics and evaluated by propagating goal nodes through the diagram via graph rewriting. Tactic nodes can have many output wires, and use a filtering procedure based on goal-types (predicates describing the features of a goal) to decide where best to send newly-generated sub-goals. In addition to making the flow of goal information explicit, the graphical language can fulfil the role of many tacticals using visual idioms like branching, merging, and feedback loops. We argue that this language enables development of more robust proof strategies and provide several examples, along with a prototype implementation in Isabelle

Ultrasonic metal sheet thickness measurement without prior wave speed calibration

Conventional ultrasonic mensuration of sample thickness from one side only requires the bulk wave reverberation time and a calibration speed. This speed changes with temperature, stress, and microstructure, limiting thickness measurement accuracy. Often, only one side of a sample is accessible, making in situ calibration impossible. Non-contact ultrasound can generate multiple shear horizontal guided wave modes on one side of a metal plate. Measuring propagation times of each mode at different transducer separations, allows sheet thickness to be calculated to better than 1% accuracy for sheets of at least 1.5 mm thickness, without any calibration

Public Health Informatics in Local and State Health Agencies: An Update From the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey

OBJECTIVE: To characterize public health informatics (PHI) specialists and identify the informatics needs of the public health workforce. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: US local and state health agencies. PARTICIPANTS: Employees from state health agencies central office (SHA-COs) and local health departments (LHDs) participating in the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). We characterized and compared the job roles for self-reported PHI, "information technology specialist or information system manager" (IT/IS), "public health science" (PHS), and "clinical and laboratory" workers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Descriptive statistics for demographics, income, education, public health experience, program area, job satisfaction, and workplace environment, as well as data and informatics skills and needs. RESULTS: A total of 17 136 SHA-CO and 26 533 LHD employees participated in the survey. PHI specialist was self-reported as a job role among 1.1% and 0.3% of SHA-CO and LHD employees. The PHI segment most closely resembled PHS employees but had less public health experience and had lower salaries. Overall, fewer than one-third of PHI specialists reported working in an informatics program area, often supporting epidemiology and surveillance, vital records, and communicable disease. Compared with PH WINS 2014, current PHI respondents' satisfaction with their job and workplace environment moved toward more neutral and negative responses, while the IT/IS, PHS, and clinical and laboratory subgroups shifted toward more positive responses. The PHI specialists were less likely than those in IT/IS, PHS, or clinical and laboratory roles to report gaps in needed data and informatics skills. CONCLUSIONS: The informatics specialists' role continues to be rare in public health agencies, and those filling that role tend to have less public health experience and be less well compensated than staff in other technically focused positions. Significant data and informatics skills gaps persist among the broader public health workforce

Spinning test particles and clock effect in Schwarzschild spacetime

We study the behaviour of spinning test particles in the Schwarzschild spacetime. Using Mathisson-Papapetrou equations of motion we confine our attention to spatially circular orbits and search for observable effects which could eventually discriminate among the standard supplementary conditions namely the Corinaldesi-Papapetrou, Pirani and Tulczyjew. We find that if the world line chosen for the multipole reduction and whose unit tangent we denote as $U$ is a circular orbit then also the generalized momentum $P$ of the spinning test particle is tangent to a circular orbit even though $P$ and $U$ are not parallel four-vectors. These orbits are shown to exist because the spin induced tidal forces provide the required acceleration no matter what supplementary condition we select. Of course, in the limit of a small spin the particle's orbit is close of being a circular geodesic and the (small) deviation of the angular velocities from the geodesic values can be of an arbitrary sign, corresponding to the possible spin-up and spin-down alignment to the z-axis. When two spinning particles orbit around a gravitating source in opposite directions, they make one loop with respect to a given static observer with different arrival times. This difference is termed clock effect. We find that a nonzero gravitomagnetic clock effect appears for oppositely orbiting both spin-up or spin-down particles even in the Schwarzschild spacetime. This allows us to establish a formal analogy with the case of (spin-less) geodesics on the equatorial plane of the Kerr spacetime. This result can be verified experimentally.Comment: IOP macros, eps figures n. 2, to appear on Classical and Quantum gravity, 200

Mirror Symmetry, Mirror Map and Applications to Calabi-Yau Hypersurfaces

Mirror Symmetry, Picard-Fuchs equations and instanton corrected Yukawa couplings are discussed within the framework of toric geometry. It allows to establish mirror symmetry of Calabi-Yau spaces for which the mirror manifold had been unavailable in previous constructions. Mirror maps and Yukawa couplings are explicitly given for several examples with two and three moduli.Comment: 59 pages. Some changes in the references, a few minor points have been clarifie