The need for Helicobacter pylori eradiction therapy in patients with peptic ulcer bleeding

Peptic ulcer bleeding is an important complication of peptic ulceration. The condition carries significant morbidity and mortality despite advances in both endoscopic intervention techniques and pharmacological treatment. About one third of patients have a recurrence of bleeding within a few years of discharge. Before Helicobacter pylori was discovered, most of these patients were given maintenance therapy with antisecretory drugs or surgery to prevent a recurrence of the bleeding. Since the eradication of Helicobacter pylori reduces the recurrence of uncomplicated peptic ulcers, its eradication should also reduce peptic ulcer complications. The aim of this review is to discuss the value of eradicating Helicobacter pylori as part of the long-term management of bleeding peptic ulcers.published_or_final_versio

A man with hypophosphataemia

Case report; A section on BMJ, 2011, v. 342, p. 715published_or_final_versio

Investigation on semi-active control of vehicle suspension using adaptive inerter

The analysis of passive control with inerter in suspension system has been well studied in previous work by employing different configurations and optimizing the spring stiffness, damping coefficient and inertance simultaneously. In this paper, we study the suspension performance with semi-active control under the assumption that the inertance may be adjusted in real-time. The suspension system is designed to attenuate the vertical acceleration of the sprung mass. A quarter-car model is considered, and the inerter is installed parallel to the spring and damper. First, an analysis is provided on the influence of a fixed inerter to a given suspension system. Then, a state-feedback H2 controller for active suspension system is designed. The active force is approximated by an inerter with adaptive inertance. Simulation results show that comparing with the passive suspension with a fixed inerter, the designedH2 controller realized by adaptive inerter can achieve good improvement of ride comfort at the sprung mass natural frequency at the expense of a relatively small deterioration at the unsprung mass natural frequency. Copyright © (2014) by the International Institute of Acoustics & Vibration All rights reserved.postprin

家庭醫生與非家庭醫生對於香港家庭醫學專科培訓所持意見的異同

目的: 探討本地醫生對家庭醫學專科培訓的意見，以作將來規劃醫療體制的參考。 設計: 橫斷面研究。 參與者及安排: 香港所有註冊醫生。 主要結果測量: 醫生對以下幾方面的評價：職業培訓的重要性、專業評核、工作性質和成為家庭醫生所需經驗，以及他們對於職業培訓所需年期的意見。 結果: 共2310位醫生完成問卷，佔本地醫生23%。最多醫生同意專業評核應為資格認可的因素，其他依次為職業培訓、臨床經驗及工作性質。七成以上受訪醫生認為培訓期應為四年或以下。非家庭醫生大多選擇專業評核作為資格認可的因素，他們亦傾向較長的培訓期。 結論: 職業培訓被認為是獲得家庭醫學專科資格的重要因素。大多數醫生認為培訓期應為四年或以下，而非香港醫學專科學院現時所訂立的六年期。因此，現時家庭醫學的職業培訓計劃或有檢討的需要。Objective: To study the local medical profession's opinions on the training requirements for the specialty of family medicine. This was to serve as a reference for future planning of the health care system. Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants and Setting: All registered doctors in Hong Kong. Main outcome measures: Doctors' ratings on the importance of vocational training, professional assessment, job nature, and experience to become suitably qualified as a family doctor, and their opinions on the length of necessary vocational training. Results: A total of 2310 doctors (23% of doctors in the local register) responded. Professional assessment was mostly agreed as a qualification, followed by vocational training, clinical experience, and job nature. Over 70% agreed on a training period of 4 years or less. Non-family doctors were more likely to opt for professional assessment as the qualification and also opt for a longer training period. Conclusion: Vocational training was considered important as a qualification for the specialty of family medicine. The length of training was mostly agreed to be 4 years or less, not the 6 years currently required by the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. The vocational training programme for family medicine might require reexamination.published_or_final_versio

The Chinese classroom paradox: A cross-cultural comparison of teacher controlling behaviors

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Leaky Bucket-Inspired Power Output Smoothing with Load-Adaptive Algorithm

The renewables will constitute an important part of the future smart grid. As a result, the growing portion of renewable generation in the power grid will bring challenges to the operations of the power grid because of the fluctuation and intermittency properties of renewables. In order to make the operations of power grid stable and reliable, the power outputs from renewable energy sources must be smoothed. In this paper, we propose a scheme inspired from the idea of the leaky bucket mechanism for smoothing the power output from a renewable energy system. In our proposed method, the settings of energy storage size and power output level have significant effects on the system performance and thus needs to be determined. An optimization framework is thus proposed for storage and power output planning of the renewable energy system. To operate our proposed scheme practically, a load-adaptive power smoothing algorithm is devised aiming to match the power output level with the actual load in the grid. Our simulation studies show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the operation cost comparing to other algorithms and maintain high renewable energy utilization.postprin

Combined diversity sequence estimation receiver for wideband digital mobile radio

An investigation is presented into the performance of a novel type of sequence estimation equalisation receiver. The receiver incorporates space diversity to further enhance the signal reception in multipath fading environments. It is shown that the receiver complexity is reduced by approx. 90% with virtually no performance loss compared to that of the MLSE.published_or_final_versio

Vehicular Energy Network

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Capacity management of vehicle-to-grid system for power regulation services

Due to green initiatives adopted in many countries, renewable energy will be massively incorporated into the future smart grid. However, the intermittency of the renewables may result in power imbalance, thus adversely affecting the stability of a power system. Voltage regulation may be used to maintain the power balance at all times. As electric vehicles (EVs) become popular, they may be connected to the grid to form a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system. An aggregation of EVs can be coordinated to provide voltage regulation services. However, V2G is a dynamic system where EVs are connected to the grid according to the owners' habits. In this paper, we model an aggregation of EVs with a queueing network, whose structure allows us to estimate the capacities for regulation up and regulation down, separately. The estimated capacities from the V2G system can be used for establishing a regulation contract between an aggregator and the grid operator, and facilitate a new business model for V2G. © 2012 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Diagnostic yield at bronchoscopy samplying in bronchial carcinoma

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