Crystallographic and magnetic structure of RbCoCl3 · 2 D2O

The crystallographic and magnetic structure of RbCoCl3 · 2 D2O were determined mainly by means of neutron diffraction measurements. Below TN = 2.79 K the magnetic moments are ordered in a canted antiferromagnetic pattern. A meta-magnetic phase transition is observed at unusually small field values (H = 18 Oe at T = 2 K)

Honing en pollen als caleidoscoop van de stad

Op bezoek bij een bevlogen biologisch-dynamische stadsimker. Edwina Brinckmann-Rouffaer woont met gezin in haar ouderlijk huis in Amersfoort. In de ruime stadstuin staan -al naar gelang het seizoen- een of meer volken

Lower extremity vascular disease

Purpose: We performed a systematic review to assess (1) to what extent Incident Reporting Systems (IRS) on the adult ICU meet the criteria of the WHO Draft Guidelines for Adverse Event Reporting and Learning Systems, (2) to what extent the IRSs comply with the four aspects of the iterative quality loop and (3) whether IRSs have led to improvement measures in clinical practice. Data sources: The authors searched multiple electronic databases from 1966 until June 26th 2014. Study Selection: Studies were included if they reported incident reporting systems on the adult ICU. Data Extraction: Data on study design, characteristics of the incident reporting system, implementation, feedback and improvement measures were collected using structured data extraction forms. Results of data synthesis: A total of 2098 studies were identified and 36 studies reported IRSs on the adult ICU. Studies were divided into: ICU specific IRSs and general IRSs. Items of the WHO checklist were assessed and categorized into the four phases of the iterative quality loop. Conclusion: None of the IRSs completely fulfilled the WHO checklist criteria. With respect to the iterative loop, data input and data collection are well established but not much attention was given to analyzing incidents and to give feedback. This resulted in an administrative report system, rather than the much desired instrument for change of practice and increase of quality as an IRS can only effectively contribute to improve patient safety and quality of care if more attention is given to analyzing incidents and feedback.Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom

XT: a bundle of program transformation tools : system description

{sc xt bundles existing and newly developed program transformation libraries and tools into an open framework that supports component-based development of program transformations. We discuss the roles of {sc xt's constituents in the development process of program transformation tools, as well as some experiences with building program transformation systems with {sc xt. <pr

Identification of high-risk subgroups in very elderly intensive care unit patients

INTRODUCTION: Current prognostic models for intensive care unit (ICU) patients have not been specifically developed or validated in the very elderly. The aim of this study was to develop a prognostic model for ICU patients 80 years old or older to predict in-hospital mortality by means of data obtained within 24 hours after ICU admission. Aside from having good overall performance, the model was designed to reliably and specifically identify subgroups at very high risk of dying. METHODS: A total of 6,867 consecutive patients 80 years old or older from 21 Dutch ICUs were studied. Data necessary to calculate the Glasgow Coma Scale, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II, Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II), Mortality Probability Models II scores, and ICU and hospital survival were recorded. Data were randomly divided into a developmental (n = 4,587) and a validation (n = 2,289) set. By means of recursive partitioning analysis, a classification tree predicting in-hospital mortality was developed. This model was compared with the original SAPS II model and with the SAPS II model after recalibration for very elderly ICU patients in the Netherlands. RESULTS: Overall performance measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and by the Brier score was similar for the classification tree, the original SAPS II model, and the recalibrated SAPS II model. The tree identified most patients with very high risk of mortality (9.2% of patients versus 8.9% for the original SAPS II and 5.9% for the recalibrated SAPS II had a risk of more than 80%). With a cut-point at a risk of 80%, the positive predictive values were 0.88 for the tree, 0.83 for the original SAPS II, and 0.87 for the recalibrated SAPS II. CONCLUSION: Prognostic models with good overall performance may also reliably identify subgroups of very elderly ICU patients who have a very high risk of dying before hospital discharge. The classification tree has the advantage of identifying the separate factors contributing to bad outcome and of using few variables. Up to 9.5% of patients were found to have a risk to die of more than 85

Electron microscopy of nanoparticle superlattice formation at a solid-liquid interface in nonpolar liquids

Nanoparticle superlattice films form at the solid-liquid interface and are important for mesoscale materials, but are notoriously difficult to analyze before they are fully dried. Here, the early stages of nanoparticle assembly were studied at solid-liquid interfaces using liquid-phase electron microscopy. Oleylamine-stabilized gold nanoparticles spontaneously formed thin layers on a silicon nitride (SiN) membrane window of the liquid enclosure. Dense packings of hexagonal symmetry were obtained for the first monolayer independent of the nonpolar solvent type. The second layer, however, exhibited geometries ranging from dense packing in a hexagonal honeycomb structure to quasi-crystalline particle arrangements depending on the dielectric constant of the liquid. The complex structures formed by the weaker interactions in the second particle layer were preserved, while the surface remained immersed in liquid. Fine-tuning the properties of the involved materials can thus be used to control the three-dimensional geometry of a superlattice including quasi-crystals