Ultrasonic characterisation of wheel hub/axle interference fit pressures

Railway wheels are secured onto the axle by means of an interference fit. The wheel is press fitted onto a pre-lubricated axle, and the resulting interference fit induces a contact pressure at the interface. Occasionally railway wheels fail by fatigue, with the initiation point for the failure frequently traced to the interference fit. The aim of this work is to use ultrasonic reflection to non-destructively determine contact conditions in the interference fit. The rough surface contact at the interference fit interface behaves like a spring. If the contact pressure is high the interface is conformal with few air gaps, the stiffness is then high and the transmission of an ultrasonic wave is permitted. However, when pressure is low more air gaps exist, interfacial stiffness is then reduced and more of the ultrasound is reflected. Normalised contact pressure was determined from this stiffness. Maps of the interface have been produced which show the contact pressure to peak at the edges of the fit, and to experience a continuous variation about a mean value elsewhere

A study to determine the influence of nursing students and their evaluators of the use of a rating scale for evaluating students' performance in medical-surgical nursing practice

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinomas In Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: A Single-Center Experience

CUTANEOUS SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA IN SOLID ORGAN TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS: A SINGLE-CENTER EXPERIENCE Joyce Y Cheng, Fang-yong Li, Christine J Ko, Oscar R Colegio. Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT Solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR) have an approximately 100-fold increased risk of developing cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). These SCCs may behave more aggressively than SCCs developing in non-immunosuppressed individuals. The purpose of this study was to gather more data regarding aggressive behavior of SCCs in immunosuppressed SOTRs compared with SCCs occurring in an immunocompetent control group. An 8-year retrospective observational cohort study was conducted to compare the demographics, care received by, and outcomes of 98 adult SOTR and immunocompetent patients with at least one histopathologically confirmed SCC. The two groups were statistically comparable with regards to demographics, patient care, follow-up time, and numbers of skin lesions they developed, though the SOTR group had significantly higher annual visit frequency (4 office visits per patient per year vs. 3, p = 0.025) and annual biopsy rates (6 biopsies per patient per year vs. 5, p = 0.039). In this setting, the SCCs developed by SOTRs did not appear to be significantly more aggressive than those in the immunocompetent control group. Our SOTRs did not develop significantly thicker tumors than the immunocompetent controls. One SOTR developed an SCC with perineural invasion, two SOTRs had regional metastasis, and one SOTR had nodal metastasis. An increased risk of carcinogenesis with increasing cumulative years of immunosuppression was surprisingly not observed among the SOTRs. SOTRs had a 90% greater risk of developing SCCs in the head and neck region compared with the immunocompetent group (RR=1.89, 95% CI 1.04-1.37). Taken together, our findings suggest that the drastically increased risk of SCCs in SOTRs and potential for aggressive behavior may be successfully managed to a level comparable to that in high-risk immunocompetent individuals with close adherence to current dermatologic surveillance recommendations for SOTRs and a marginally lower threshold for biopsy of suspicious lesions

The nature of public opinion on social media in China

The political implications of the Internet on China has drawn much interest. Without an effective government system of grievance address, Chinese citizens have directed their complaints first to the news media and then social media as de-facto petition offices. Without the vote in political elections, the Chinese have exercised their citizenship through onlooking, producing and sharing information, expressing opinions and discussing with each other, and mobilizing action about public issues online. The launch of Sina Weibo in 2009 and its rapid rise in popularity saw objectionable projects scraped and corrupt officials dismissed. In response, the Chinese state struck back with tightened control on uses and in early 2013 arrested some and terminated the accounts of other prominent users, while increasing its own use of social media. At the same time, Weixin, which has been popular since its launch in 2011, has introduced public accounts that publish posts to their subscribers, and allow them to comment on the posts. Many scholars have analysed these changes from the perspective of development of the civil society, formation of the public sphere, and change in state-society relationship. Recently, big data analyses have produced results about the type of topics discussed and network distribution of messages on social media spaces. Far fewer have investigated these changes as phenomena of public opinion beyond using the term as description. This is surprising as journalists and the Chinese authorities themselves tend to frame these changes as the rise of online public opinion, and the Chinese authorities have responded by building an industry of online public opinion research. Against this background, this paper aims to propose a conceptualization of public opinion on social media. Following Arnold’s (2007) (“Tönnies’ concept of public opinion and its utility for the academic field,” Javnost-the public, 14(2), 7-29) framework, it suggests the existence of mass sentiment, published opinion, public opinion, and opinion of the public on social media in China. It considers the expression of public opinion on social media, and conceives the articulation of online public opinion as a process of co-production—in contrast to articulation of “offline” public opinion as a product. Social media posts that communicate information, emotion, and action-indication, in addition to analysis and judgement, are considered relevant to the formation of opinion of the public. With reference to China’s weibo, a networked stimulus-response process model is proposed for the formation of public opinion on social media in China.China Studies Centre, University of Sydne

Exploring the second phase of public journalism

This paper examines the new forms of audience participation in journalism with regard to their possibility in achieving the goals of public journalism.2 A typology of five models of audience connections is proposed: (1) traditional journalism, (2) public journalism, (3) interactive journalism, (4) participatory journalism, and (5) citizen journalism. Identifying the higher goal of public journalism as engaging the people as citizens and helping public deliberation, I argue that the new forms of audience participation could further these goals only by infusing the value from and learning the techniques of public journalism. The concept of community, of public deliberation, past research on the Internet, and data obtained from my field study is drawn upon.Fulbright Research Counci

Interrater reliability in visual identification of interictal high-frequency oscillations on electrocorticography and scalp EEG.

High-frequency oscillations (HFOs), including ripples (Rs) and fast ripples (FRs), are promising biomarkers of epileptogenesis, but their clinical utility is limited by the lack of a standardized approach to identification. We set out to determine whether electroencephalographers experienced in HFO analysis can reliably identify and quantify interictal HFOs. Two blinded raters independently reviewed 10 intraoperative electrocorticography (ECoG) samples from epilepsy surgery cases, and 10 scalp EEG samples from epilepsy monitoring unit evaluations. HFOs were visually marked using bandpass filters (R, 80-250 Hz; FR, 250-500 Hz) with a sampling frequency of 2,000 Hz. There was agreement as to the presence or absence of epileptiform discharges (EDs), Rs, and FRs, in 17, 18, and 18 cases, respectively. Interrater reliability (IRR) was favorable with κ = 0.70, 0.80, and 0.80, respectively, and similar for ECoG and scalp electroencephalography (EEG). Furthermore, interclass correlation for rates of Rs (0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.96-0.99) and FRs (0.77, 95% CI 0.41-0.91) were superior in comparison to EDs (0.37, 95% CI -0.60 to 0.75). Our data suggest that HFO identification and quantification are reliable among experienced electroencephalographers. Our findings support the reliability of utilizing HFO data in both research and clinical arenas

Evolution of InAs branches in InAs/GaAs nanowire heterostructures

Branched nanowireheterostructures of InAs∕GaAs were observed during Au-assisted growth of InAs on GaAsnanowires. The evolution of these branches has been determined through detailed electron microscopy characterization with the following sequence: (1) in the initial stage of InAsgrowth, the Au droplet is observed to slide down the side of the GaAsnanowire, (2) the downward movement of Aunanoparticle later terminates when the nanoparticle encounters InAsgrowing radially on the GaAsnanowire sidewalls, and (3) with further supply of In and As vapor reactants, the Aunanoparticles assist the formation of InAs branches with a well-defined orientation relationship with GaAs∕InAs core/shell stems. We anticipate that these observations advance the understanding of the kink formation in axial nanowireheterostructures.The Australian Research Council is acknowledged for the financial support of this project. One of the authors M.P. acknowledges the support of an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship