Apollo Saturn 511 effluent measurements from the Apollo 16 launch operations: An experiment

An experiment was performed in conjunction with the Apollo 16 launch to define operational and instrumentational problems associated with launch-vehicle exhaust effluent monitoring. Ground and airborne sampling were performed for CO, CO2, hydrocarbons, and particulates. Sampling systems included filter pads and photometers for particulates and whole-air grab samples for gases. Launch debris was identified in the particulate samples at ground level(taken immediately after launch) and in the airborne measurements (taken 40 to 50 minutes after launch approximately 40 km downwind of the pad). Operational problems were identified and included the need for higher instrumentation mobility and the need for real-time sampling instrumentation as opposed to collection-type samples such as the whole-air grab sample

Effluent sampling of Scout D and Delta launch vehicle exhausts

Characterization of engine-exhaust effluents (hydrogen chloride, aluminum oxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide) has been attempted by conducting field experiments monitoring the exhaust cloud from a Scout-Algol III vehicle launch and a Delta-Thor vehicle launch. The exhaust cloud particulate size number distribution (total number of particles as a function of particle diameter), mass loading, morphology, and elemental composition have been determined within limitations. The gaseous species in the exhaust cloud have been identified. In addition to the ground-based measurements, instrumented aircraft flights through the low-altitude, stabilized-exhaust cloud provided measurements which identified CO and HCI gases and Al2O3 particles. Measurements of the initial exhaust cloud during formation and downwind at several distances have established sampling techniques which will be used for experimental verification of model predictions of effluent dispersion and fallout from exhaust clouds

Improving adaptive bagging methods for evolving data streams

We propose two new improvements for bagging methods on evolving data streams. Recently, two new variants of Bagging were proposed: ADWIN Bagging and Adaptive-Size Hoeffding Tree (ASHT) Bagging. ASHT Bagging uses trees of different sizes, and ADWIN Bagging uses ADWIN as a change detector to decide when to discard underperforming ensemble members. We improve ADWIN Bagging using Hoeffding Adaptive Trees, trees that can adaptively learn from data streams that change over time. To speed up the time for adapting to change of Adaptive-Size Hoeffding Tree (ASHT) Bagging, we add an error change detector for each classifier. We test our improvements by performing an evaluation study on synthetic and real-world datasets comprising up to ten million examples

Communication during counseling sessions about inhaled corticosteroids at the community pharmacy

Contains fulltext : 172163.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Pharmaceutical care is one of the major tasks of pharmacists, which aims to improve patient outcomes. Counseling patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease about their use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) might enhance medication adherence and symptom control. Therefore, effective pharmacist-patient communication is very important. In this regard, both affective communication, for handling emotions, and instrumental communication, for exchanging biomedical and lifestyle information, are relevant. Until now, only few studies have explored pharmacist-patient communication, and further insight is needed in this regard. The aim of this study is to investigate how pharmacists and pharmacy technicians communicate about ICS with patients with asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, what topics are discussed by them, and whether pharmacists and pharmacy technicians differ in their communication during counseling sessions. METHODS: Patients aged >/=18 years who had used ICS for at least 1 year and filled at least two ICS prescriptions in the preceding year were recruited through 12 pharmacies. Participants had one counseling session with a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician, which was video-recorded. The process and content of the provider-patient communication were analyzed using the Roter interaction analysis system, adapted to the pharmaceutical setting. RESULTS: A total of 169 sessions were recorded and analyzed. The communication appeared largely instrumental. Lifestyle, psychosocial issues, and ICS adherence were not discussed in detail. The pharmacists had longer conversations and more affective talk than the pharmacy technicians. CONCLUSION: Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians may need to pay more attention to ICS adherence, lifestyle, and psychosocial topics. They differed in their communication; the pharmacists exhibited more affective behavior and discussed medical and therapeutic issues more extensively compared to the pharmacy technicians. Educational courses for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians could focus more on the discussion of adherence, lifestyle, and psychosocial topics with patients

Invasive community-onset gram-positive infections from July 2018 through December 2022 at 2 children\u27s hospitals

BACKGROUND: Invasive infections caused by METHODS: Cases of iGAS, IPD, and I-CO-SA infections were identified prospectively and retrospectively at 2 large US children\u27s hospitals by positive cultures from July 2018 through December 2022. Admission data were used to estimate frequency. For comparison, rates of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and SARS-CoV-2 were estimated by the number of positive viral test results at each institution. RESULTS: I-CO-SA infections showed little variation in the study period. Rates of iGAS infection and IPD decreased by 46% and 44%, respectively, from 2019 to 2020, coinciding with a substantial decrease in RSV and influenza. In 2022, RSV and influenza infection rates increased to prepandemic winter season rates, coinciding with a return to prepandemic rates of IPD (225% increase from 2021 to 2022) and a surge above prepandemic rates of iGAS infections (543% increase from 2021 to 2022). CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic had an unexpected influence on IPD and iGAS infections that was temporally related to changes in rates of viral infections

Beliefs about inhaled corticosteroids:Comparison of community pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and patients with asthma

Item does not contain fulltextOBJECTIVES: To compare pharmacists' and pharmacy technicians' perceptions of patients' beliefs regarding inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) with those of patients and to compare the ICS beliefs of pharmacists and technicians with those of patients with asthma. METHODS: 1269 community pharmacies were approached to fill out an online questionnaire; 1952 patients were sent a questionnaire by post. Beliefs (i.e., necessity and concerns) regarding ICS were measured using (an adapted version of) the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ-specific). Pharmacists and technicians were instructed to fill out the BMQ for themselves, and to fill it out in the way they thought most of their patients would complete it. RESULTS: 136 pharmacists, 90 pharmacy technicians and 161 patients with asthma completed the questionnaire. Pharmacists and technicians thought patients had more concerns about ICS than patients themselves reported (p < 0.0001). They also thought that patients had stronger beliefs in their personal need for ICS than patients reported (p < 0.01). Pharmacists reported lower levels of concerns than patients (p < 0.05) and both providers attributed a higher level of necessity to ICS than patients did (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Pharmacists and technicians overestimate the personal need for treatment as well as the concerns patients with asthma have regarding ICS. They also have, to some extent, stronger positive beliefs about ICS than patients. If pharmacists and technicians expect that patients share their positive views about ICS, they might be less likely to elicit and address patients' doubts and concerns about ICS, which might be relevant for effective ICS treatment and subsequent patient outcomes

Decreasing the load? Is a Multidisciplinary Multistep Medication Review in older people an effective intervention to reduce a patient's Drug Burden Index? Protocol of a randomised controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: Older people often use medications with anticholinergic or sedative side effects which increase the risk of falling and worsen cognitive impairment. The Drug Burden Index (DBI) is a measure of the burden of anticholinergic and sedative medications. Medication reviews are typically done by a pharmacist in collaboration with a general practitioner to optimise the medication use and reduce these adverse drug events. We will evaluate whether a Multidisciplinary Multistep Medication Review (3MR) is an effective intervention to reduce a patient's DBI. METHODS: A randomised controlled trial including 160 patients from 15 community pharmacies will be conducted. Per pharmacy, 1 pharmacist will perform a structured 3MR in close collaboration with the general practitioner, including the objective to reduce the DBI. ANALYSIS: Primary outcome-the difference in proportion of patients having a decrease in DBI≥0.5 in the intervention and control groups at follow-up. Secondary outcomes-anticholinergic and sedative side effects, falls, cognitive function, activities of daily living, quality of life, hospital admission, and mortality. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The burden of patients will be kept at a minimum. The 3MR can be considered as usual care by the pharmacist and general practitioner. Medical specialists will be consulted, if necessary. The intervention is specifically aimed at older community-dwelling patients in an attempt to optimise prescribing, in particular, to reduce medication with anticholinergic and sedative properties. Study results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and will be distributed through information channels targeting professionals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02317666; Pre-results

Detecting change via competence model

In real world applications, interested concepts are more likely to change rather than remain stable, which is known as concept drift. This situation causes problems on predictions for many learning algorithms including case-base reasoning (CBR). When learning under concept drift, a critical issue is to identify and determine "when" and "how" the concept changes. In this paper, we developed a competence-based empirical distance between case chunks and then proposed a change detection method based on it. As a main contribution of our work, the change detection method provides an approach to measure the distribution change of cases of an infinite domain through finite samples and requires no prior knowledge about the case distribution, which makes it more practical in real world applications. Also, different from many other change detection methods, we not only detect the change of concepts but also quantify and describe this change. © 2010 Springer-Verlag

Rapid detection of Staphylococcus aureus Panton-Valentine leukocidin in clinical specimens by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunochromatographic tests

10.1128/JCM.02274-09Journal of Clinical Microbiology4841384-139

The AIQ Meta-Testbed: Pragmatically Bridging Academic AI Testing and Industrial Q Needs

AI solutions seem to appear in any and all application domains. As AI becomes more pervasive, the importance of quality assurance increases. Unfortunately, there is no consensus on what artificial intelligence means and interpretations range from simple statistical analysis to sentient humanoid robots. On top of that, quality is a notoriously hard concept to pinpoint. What does this mean for AI quality? In this paper, we share our working definition and a pragmatic approach to address the corresponding quality assurance with a focus on testing. Finally, we present our ongoing work on establishing the AIQ Meta-Testbed.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Proc. of the Software Quality Days 2021, Vienna, Austri