What Do Men with Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Expect from a Urologist in Secondary Care?

Purpose: To identify the expectations of men with LUTS referred to a urologist and to study the association between those expectations and satisfaction with the care provided. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, adult men with LUTS completed a questionnaire before their first outpatient appointment, and again at 6 and 12 weeks. The questionnaires included IPSS and OABq-SF, and self-constructed questions on patient expectations, outcome of expectations and satisfaction. Results: Data from 182 participants showed positive expectations about the urologist performing examinations, providing explanations and finding the underlying cause, but mostly neutral expectations for treatment plans and outcomes. Positive treatment expectations were associated with positive expectations about outcomes after physiotherapy, drug treatment and surgery. Higher symptom scores and age were associated with higher expectations about drug treatment. Expectations were subjectively and objectively fulfilled for 66.4% and 27.3%, respectively. Symptom improvement (decrease in IPSS scores) was significantly more in men with objectively fulfilled expectations than in men with no unfulfilled expectations. No significant difference was present between men with subjectively fulfilled expectations and men with unfulfilled expectations. However, satisfaction was significantly higher for patients with subjectively fulfilled expectations at 6 and 12 weeks compared with those who had unfulfilled expectations. Conclusion: Most men referred to a urologist with LUTS do express clear expectations about treatment in secondary care. Patients with higher expectations for treatment outcomes are more likely to expect to receive that treatment. Satisfaction with the care of a urologist is also higher when patients self-report that they receive the treatment they expected

Quality control for next-generation liquefaction case histories

The Next-Generation Liquefaction (NGL) database is an open-source, global database of liquefaction and non-ground failure case-histories. The database is part of a multi-year research effort with the main goal of developing improved procedures to evaluate liquefaction susceptibility, triggering, and consequences. In NGL, a case-history is defined as the intersection of three components: (1) a site, (2) an earthquake event, and (3) post-earthquake observations. The NGL database hosts case-histories used to develop existing liquefaction models, as well as new data derived from recent earthquakes such as the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence, the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, and the 2012 Emilia earthquake. The database also hosts lateral spread case-histories, and a substantial number of liquefaction sites characterized by the presence of co-located recording stations. All of the data present in the NGL database are reviewed by the NGL Database Working Group. The NGL formal vetting process is described for an example case-history

Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation and Modified Neutral Plane Solution for Calculating Downdrag Settlement

The neutral plane solution has been widely used to estimate downdrag settlements and drag loads mobilized in piles in consolidating soil profiles. Pile settlement is typically assumed equal to soil settlement at the neutral plane depth corresponding to effective stress conditions at the end of consolidation. This paper demonstrates that, in general, pile settlement is not equal to soil settlement at the neutral plane depth; rather, it is the relative velocity between the pile and soil that is zero at the neutral plane depth. A beam on nonlinear Winkler foundation (BNWF) solution, in which the shaft friction capacity is proportional to effective stress, is utilized to demonstrate that pile settlement is not equal to soil settlement at the neutral plane depth, because the neutral plane depth evolves as consolidation progresses. The BNWF solution also shows that pile settlement depends on drainage conditions, with more settlement occurring when consolidation occurs first near the top of the consolidating soil layer, and less settlement occurring when consolidation initiates at the bottom. A modified neutral plane solution that is amenable to hand calculation is formulated to account for the evolution of neutral plane depth on pile settlement. Finally, the proposed BNWF and modified neutral plane solutions are compared with measurements of downdrag settlement from a centrifuge test program. The proposed methods produced more accurate estimates of pile settlement than the traditional neutral plane solution. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers

First Observation of the Σc∗+\Sigma_{c}^{*+} Baryon and a New Measurement of the Σc+\Sigma_{c}^{+} Mass

Using data recorded with the CLEO II and CLEO II.V detector configurations at the Cornell Electron Storage Rings, we report the first observation and mass measurement of the $\Sigma_c^{*+}$ charmed baryon, and an updated measurement of the mass of the $\Sigma_c^+$ baryon. We find $M(\Sigma_c^{*+})-M(\Lambda_c^+)$= 231.0 +- 1.1 +- 2.0 MeV, and $M(\Sigma_c^{+})-M(\Lambda_c^+)$= 166.4 +- 0.2 +- 0.3 MeV, where the errors are statistical and systematic respectively.Comment: 8 pages postscript, also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

Strong Decays of Strange Quarkonia

In this paper we evaluate strong decay amplitudes and partial widths of strange mesons (strangeonia and kaonia) in the 3P0 decay model. We give numerical results for all energetically allowed open-flavor two-body decay modes of all nsbar and ssbar strange mesons in the 1S, 2S, 3S, 1P, 2P, 1D and 1F multiplets, comprising strong decays of a total of 43 resonances into 525 two-body modes, with 891 numerically evaluated amplitudes. This set of resonances includes all strange qqbar states with allowed strong decays expected in the quark model up to ca. 2.2 GeV. We use standard nonrelativistic quark model SHO wavefunctions to evaluate these amplitudes, and quote numerical results for all amplitudes present in each decay mode. We also discuss the status of the associated experimental candidates, and note which states and decay modes would be especially interesting for future experimental study at hadronic, e+e- and photoproduction facilities. These results should also be useful in distinguishing conventional quark model mesons from exotica such as glueballs and hybrids through their strong decays.Comment: 69 pages, 5 figures, 39 table