Airport-Noise Levels and Annoyance Model (ALAMO) user's guide

A guide for the use of the Airport-Noise Level and Annoyance MOdel (ALAMO) at the Langley Research Center computer complex is provided. This document is divided into 5 primary sections, the introduction, the purpose of the model, and an in-depth description of the following subsystems: baseline, noise reduction simulation and track analysis. For each subsystem, the user is provided with a description of architecture, an explanation of subsystem use, sample results, and a case runner's check list. It is assumed that the user is familiar with the operations at the Langley Research Center (LaRC) computer complex, the Network Operating System (NOS 1.4) and CYBER Control Language. Incorporated within the ALAMO model is a census database system called SITE II

Cost-effectiveness of counselling, graded-exercise and usual care for chronic fatigue: evidence from a randomised trial in primary care

Fatigue is common and has been shown to result in high economic costs to society. The aim of this study is to compare the cost-effectiveness of two active therapies, graded-exercise (GET) and counselling (COUN) with usual care plus a self-help booklet (BUC) for people presenting with chronic fatigue

Comparison of the renal clearances of inulin and radioactive labelled hypaque as measures of the glomerular filtration rate in man

The standard method of estimating the rate of glomerular filtration (G.F.R.) in man has been by the renal clearance of inulin since it was demonstrated. that this plant polysaccharide is neither secreted nor reabsorbed by the renal tubules. The criteria which must be satisfied by a substance for its renal clearance to cive a valid measure of glomerular filtration rate have been discussed in detail by Smith (1951). Chemical methods for the determination of inulin in plasma and urine have been rather unsatisfactory (Smith 1951) and a variety of substances have been studied in an attempt to find a substitute for inulin. The endogenous creatinine clearance is widely used for clinical purposes but the creatinine/inulin clearance ratio exceeds unity in many human subjects indicating a variable deree of tubular secretion of creatinine (Smith 1 951 , Berlune et al 1 964) and this clearance is not a reliable measure of glomerular filtration in man.Recently a number of compounds labelled with radioisotopes have been studied and found to have clearances similar to'that of inulin. Allyl inulin labelled with ¹²⁵I has a clearance virtually identical to that of inulin in the dog (Concannon et al 1964) but is not readily available and is difficult to sterilise. Radioactive ⁵⁷Co-labelled cyanocobalamin gives a satisfactory measure of G.F.R. if only the free vitamin in the plasma is measured (Nelp et al 1964, Cutler and Glatte 1965). However, even after a large loading dose of unlabelled cyanocobalamin, plasma protein binding, of the labelled compound occurs and is variable in extent, nor is it easy to determine the proportion. of the labelled vitamin which is plasma bound in vivo (Skins and Sgherzi 1964, Donaldson and Doig unpublished observations). The most convenient inulin substitutes so far available are .the radiographic contrast media sodium diatrizoate ( Hypaque) and meglumin diatrizoate (Renografin) labelled with ¹³I or ¹²⁵I. In man Hypaque appears to fulfil many of Smith's criteria, it is not significantly bound to plasma proteins (Lasser et al 1962) nor does it readily penetrate red blood cells (Denneberg et al 1961), its renal excretion is complete and its extrarenal excretion negligible (Denneberg 1965). Hypac,ue and Renografin have been shown by various authors to have clearances very similar to the simultaneous inulin or thiosulphate clearance in man and the literature on these compounds has been well reviewed by Denneberg (1965). However some authors have not found the Hypaque and inulin or thiosulphate clearances to be identical (Bianchi and Zampieri 1961, Woodruff and Malvin 1560, Stokes et al 1 ;62, Denneberg 1565 and while some comparisons were carried out during continuous infusion of inulin and Hypaque (Burbank et al 1963), others were made on the basis of a single injection of Hypaque (Bianchi and Zampieri 1961). The latter are difficult to interpret physiologically; the difficulties inherent in all "single injection" clearances have been discussed by Smith (1951) and Robson et al (1949) .It has been variously suggested that Hypaque is neither reabsorbed nor secreted by the renal tubules in man (Burbank et al 1963), nor in the dog Woodruff and Malvin 1960), that it is reabsorbed in man (Bianchi and Zampieri 1961) and in dog (Stokes et al 1962) and that it is both secreted and reabsorbed in man (Denneberg 1965).Morris et al (1965) found that the clearance of ¹³¹I Renografin did not alter when the plasma level was raised by large doses of inactive Renografin, suggesting that this compound is not handled by the tubules. However they studied only two subjects in this way. Hypaque would be expected to behave in the renal tubules in the same way as Renografin as it is the diatrizoate ion which is estimated in both cases. However Denneberg (1965) found that the Hypaque /inulin clearance ratio fell, on average, after the administration of the tubular blocking agent probenecid and concluded that Hypaque is secreted and perhaps also reabsorbed by the renal tubules in man.Because of this confusion in the literature about tubular handling of Hypaque in man, the studies described in this paper were carried out in an attempt to resolve the Question of whether or not radioactive labelled Hypaque is handled by the renal tubules and to investigate its clearance as a measure of the rate of glomerular filtration in human subjects

Stability and Hermitian-Einstein metrics for vector bundles on framed manifolds

We adapt the notions of stability of holomorphic vector bundles in the sense of Mumford-Takemoto and Hermitian-Einstein metrics in holomorphic vector bundles for canonically polarized framed manifolds, i.e. compact complex manifolds X together with a smooth divisor D such that K_X \otimes [D] is ample. It turns out that the degree of a torsion-free coherent sheaf on X with respect to the polarization K_X \otimes [D] coincides with the degree with respect to the complete K\"ahler-Einstein metric g_{X \setminus D} on X \setminus D. For stable holomorphic vector bundles, we prove the existence of a Hermitian-Einstein metric with respect to g_{X \setminus D} and also the uniqueness in an adapted sense.Comment: 21 pages, International Journal of Mathematics (to appear

Explaining anomalous responses to treatment in the Intensive Care Unit

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) provides treatment to critically ill patients. When a patient does not respond as expected to such treatment it can be challenging for clinicians, especially junior clinicians, as they may not have the relevant experience to understand the patient’s anomalous response. Datasets for 10 patients from Glasgow Royal Infirmary’s ICU have been made available to us. We asked several ICU clinicians to review these datasets and to suggest sequences which include anomalous or unusual reactions to treatment. Further, we then asked two ICU clinicians if they agreed with their colleagues’ assessments, and if they did to provide possible explanations for these anomalous sequences. Subsequently we have developed a system which is able to replicate the clinicians’ explanations based on the knowledge contained in its several ontologies; further the system can suggest additional explanations which will be evaluated by the senior consultant

The ADHM Construction of Instantons on Noncommutative Spaces

We present an account of the ADHM construction of instantons on Euclidean space-time $\mathbb{R}^4$ from the point of view of noncommutative geometry. We recall the main ingredients of the classical construction in a coordinate algebra format, which we then deform using a cocycle twisting procedure to obtain a method for constructing families of instantons on noncommutative space-time, parameterised by solutions to an appropriate set of ADHM equations. We illustrate the noncommutative construction in two special cases: the Moyal-Groenewold plane $\mathbb{R}^4_\hbar$ and the Connes-Landi plane $\mathbb{R}^4_\theta$.Comment: Latex, 40 page

N=2 Topological Yang-Mills Theory on Compact K\"{a}hler Surfaces

We study a topological Yang-Mills theory with $N=2$ fermionic symmetry. Our formalism is a field theoretical interpretation of the Donaldson polynomial invariants on compact K\"{a}hler surfaces. We also study an analogous theory on compact oriented Riemann surfaces and briefly discuss a possible application of the Witten's non-Abelian localization formula to the problems in the case of compact K\"{a}hler surfaces.Comment: ESENAT-93-01 & YUMS-93-10, 34pages: [Final Version] to appear in Comm. Math. Phy

Making the case for mobile cognition: EEG and sports performance

In the high stakes world of International sport even the smallest change in performance can make the difference between success and failure, leading sports professionals to become increasingly interested in the potential benefits of neuroimaging. Here we describe evidence from EEG studies that either identify neural signals associated with expertise in sport, or employ neurofeedback to improve performance. Evidence for the validity of neurofeedback as a technique for enhancing sports performance remains limited. By contrast, progress in characterizing the neural correlates of sporting behavior is clear: frequency domain studies link expert performance to changes in alpha rhythms, whilst time-domain studies link expertise in response evaluation and motor output with modulations of P300 effects and readiness potentials. Despite early promise, however, findings have had relatively little impact for sports professionals, at least in part because there has been a mismatch between lab tasks and real sporting activity. After selectively reviewing existing findings and outlining limitations, we highlight developments in mobile EEG technology that offer new opportunities for sports neuroscience