6,024 research outputs found
Severing the Link between Farm Program Payments and Farm Production: Motivation, International Efforts, and Lessons
Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,
The Australian Incident Monitoring Study in Intensive Care: AIMS-ICU. The development and evaluation of an incident reporting system in intensive care
Publisher's copy made available with the permission of the publisher © 1996 Australian Society of AnaesthetistsIntensive care units are complex, dynamic patient management environments. Incidents and accidents can be caused by human error, by problems inherent in complex systems, or by a combination of these. Study objectives were to develop and evaluate an incident reporting system. A report form was designed eliciting a description of the incident, contextual information and contributing factors. Staff group sessions using open-ended questions, observations in the workplace and a review of earlier narratives were used to develop the report form. Three intensive care units participated in a two-month evaluation study. Feedback questionnaires were used to assess staff attitudes and understanding, project design and organization. These demonstrated a positive attitude and good understanding by more than 90% participants. Errors in communication, technique, problem recognition and charting were the predisposing factors most commonly chosen in the 128 incidents reported. It was concluded that incident monitoring may be a suitable technique for improving patient safety in intensive care.U. Beckman, L.F. West, G.J. Groombridge, I. Baldwin, G.K. Hart, D.G. Clayton, R.K. Webb, W.B. Runcima
Artificial biochemical networks.
Connectionist approaches to Artificial Intelligence are almost always based on Artificial Neural Networks. However, there is another route towards Parallel Distributed Processing, taking as its inspiration the intelligence displayed by single celled creatures called Protoctists (Protists). This is based on networks of interacting proteins. Such networks may be used in Pattern Recognition and Control tasks and are more flexible than most neuron models. In this paper they are demonstrated in Image Recognition applications and in Legged Robot control. They are trained using a Genetic Algorithm and Back Propagation
Large-scale non-locality in "doubly special relativity" with an energy-dependent speed of light
There are two major alternatives for violating the (usual) Lorentz invariance
at large (Planckian) energies or momenta - either not all inertial frames (in
the Planck regime) are equivalent (e.g., there is an effectively preferred
frame) or the transformations from one frame to another are (non-linearly)
deformed (``doubly special relativity''). We demonstrate that the natural (and
reasonable) assumption of an energy-dependent speed of light in the latter
method goes along with violations of locality/separability (and even
translational invariance) on macroscopic scales.
PACS: 03.30.+p, 11.30.Cp, 04.60.-m, 04.50.+h.Comment: 5 pages RevTeX, several modification
Linearisation Instabilities of the Massive Nonsymmetric Gravitational Theory
The massive nonsymmetric gravitational theory is shown to posses a
linearisation instability at purely GR field configurations, disallowing the
use of the linear approximation in these situations. It is also shown that
arbitrarily small antisymmetric sector Cauchy data leads to singular evolution
unless an ad hoc condition is imposed on the initial data hypersurface.Comment: 14 pages, IOP style for submission to CQG. Minor changes and
additional background material adde
Desire-state attribution: Benefits of a novel paradigm using the food-sharing behavior of Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius).
In recent years, we have investigated the possibility that Eurasian jay food sharing might rely on desire-state attribution. The female's desire for a particular type of food can be decreased by sating her on it (specific satiety) and the food sharing paradigm can be used to test whether the male's sharing pattern reflects the female's current desire. Our previous findings show that the male shares the food that the female currently wants. Here, we consider 3 simpler mechanisms that might explain the male's behavior: behavior reading, lack of self-other differentiation and behavioral rules. We illustrate how we have already addressed these issues and how our food sharing paradigm can be further adapted to answer outstanding questions. The flexibility with which the food sharing paradigm can be applied to rule out alternative mechanisms makes it a useful tool to study desire-state attribution in jays and other species that share food
A three dimensional model of the photosynthetic membranes of Ectothiorhodospira halochloris
The three dimensional organization of the complete photosynthetic apparatus of the extremely halophilic, bacteriochlorophyll b containing Ectothiorhodospira halochloris has been elaborated by several techniques of electron microscopy. Essentially all thylakoidal sacs are disc shaped and connected to the cytoplasmic membrane by small membraneous ldquobridgesrdquo. In sum, the lumina of all thylakoids (intrathylakoidal space) form one common periplasmic space. Thin sections confirm a paracrystalline arrangement of the photosynthetic complexes in situ. The ontogenic development of the photosynthetic apparatus is discussed based on a structural model derived from serial thin sections
Estimation of Parameters in DNA Mixture Analysis
In Cowell et al. (2007), a Bayesian network for analysis of mixed traces of
DNA was presented using gamma distributions for modelling peak sizes in the
electropherogram. It was demonstrated that the analysis was sensitive to the
choice of a variance factor and hence this should be adapted to any new trace
analysed. In the present paper we discuss how the variance parameter can be
estimated by maximum likelihood to achieve this. The unknown proportions of DNA
from each contributor can similarly be estimated by maximum likelihood jointly
with the variance parameter. Furthermore we discuss how to incorporate prior
knowledge about the parameters in a Bayesian analysis. The proposed estimation
methods are illustrated through a few examples of applications for calculating
evidential value in casework and for mixture deconvolution
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