45,265 research outputs found
Evaluation of Includem’s intensive support services – September 2007
In 2005 Includem commissioned a two-year evaluation of its intensive support services provided to young people as part of the Intensive Support and Monitoring Service in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, and West Dunbartonshire. Over two years Includem’s provided intensive support, normally around 15 hours per week plus access to Includem’s 24-hour crisis helpline, to over 200 young people, including 69 young people with a Movement Restriction Condition ('electronic tag')
Fluctuations in Number of Cercospora beticola Conidia in Relationship to Environment and Disease Severity in Sugar Beet
All content of Phytopathology is open access without restriction 12 months after publicationCercospora leaf spot, caused by Cercospora beticola, is the most damaging foliar disease of sugar beet in Minnesota (MN) and North Dakota (ND). Research was conducted to characterize the temporal progression of aerial concentration of C. beticola conidia in association with the environment and disease severity in sugar beet. In 2003 and 2004, volumetric spore traps were placed within inoculated sugar beet plots to determine daily dispersal of conidia at Breckenridge, MN, and St. Thomas, ND. Plots were rated weekly for disease severity. At both locations, conidia were first collected in early July 2003 and late June in 2004. Peaks of conidia per cubic meter of air were observed with maxima in late August 2003 and in early September 2004 at both locations. Peaks of airborne conidium concentration were significantly correlated with the average temperature of daily hours when relative humidity was greater than 87%. Weekly mean hourly conidia per cubic meter of air was significantly (P <0.01) associated with disease severity during both years and across locations. This study showed that C. beticola conidial numbers may be used to estimate potential disease severity that, with further research, could be incorporated in a disease forecasting model to rationalize Cercospora leaf spot management.Peer reviewe
Distributing the Kalman Filter for Large-Scale Systems
This paper derives a \emph{distributed} Kalman filter to estimate a sparsely
connected, large-scale, dimensional, dynamical system monitored by a
network of sensors. Local Kalman filters are implemented on the
(dimensional, where ) sub-systems that are obtained after
spatially decomposing the large-scale system. The resulting sub-systems
overlap, which along with an assimilation procedure on the local Kalman
filters, preserve an th order Gauss-Markovian structure of the centralized
error processes. The information loss due to the th order Gauss-Markovian
approximation is controllable as it can be characterized by a divergence that
decreases as . The order of the approximation, , leads to a lower
bound on the dimension of the sub-systems, hence, providing a criterion for
sub-system selection. The assimilation procedure is carried out on the local
error covariances with a distributed iterate collapse inversion (DICI)
algorithm that we introduce. The DICI algorithm computes the (approximated)
centralized Riccati and Lyapunov equations iteratively with only local
communication and low-order computation. We fuse the observations that are
common among the local Kalman filters using bipartite fusion graphs and
consensus averaging algorithms. The proposed algorithm achieves full
distribution of the Kalman filter that is coherent with the centralized Kalman
filter with an th order Gaussian-Markovian structure on the centralized
error processes. Nowhere storage, communication, or computation of
dimensional vectors and matrices is needed; only dimensional
vectors and matrices are communicated or used in the computation at the
sensors
Client Satisfaction Towards Quality of Health Services: an Assessment at Primary Healthcare of District Gujranwala
This survey designed to evaluate the satisfaction level and the factors that affect the patient satisfaction regarding health care delivery services with the aim to improve the services in the primary health care settings of Gujranwala. A Cross Sectional Study done on randomly selected patients attending the basic health units of Gujranwala, with more than18 years of age. Pretested structured "Liker scale questionnaire" was used for data collection. Out of total respondents, 62 (41.3%) clients were satisfied with the services provided by the basic health units of Gujranwala. The factors identified to determine patient satisfaction were accessibility of services, behavior of staff, health education, level of cleanliness, drug availability and miscellaneous services. Not a single ranked area of satisfaction noticed. Client\u27s occupation and income had significant relationship with the patient satisfaction level. Gender, age, and education of clients were not contributing factors; they not affect the client satisfaction level.Less than half clients were satisfied with the services provided by the basic health units. Management of health facilities needs to improve the services
DILAND: An Algorithm for Distributed Sensor Localization with Noisy Distance Measurements
In this correspondence, we present an algorithm for distributed sensor
localization with noisy distance measurements (DILAND) that extends and makes
the DLRE more robust. DLRE is a distributed sensor localization algorithm in
introduced in \cite{usman_loctsp:08}. DILAND operates
when (i) the communication among the sensors is noisy; (ii) the communication
links in the network may fail with a non-zero probability; and (iii) the
measurements performed to compute distances among the sensors are corrupted
with noise. The sensors (which do not know their locations) lie in the convex
hull of at least anchors (nodes that know their own locations.) Under
minimal assumptions on the connectivity and triangulation of each sensor in the
network, this correspondence shows that, under the broad random phenomena
described above, DILAND converges almost surely (a.s.) to the exact sensor
locations.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. Initial
submission on May 2009. 12 page
DERIVING EMPIRICAL DEFINITIONS OF SPATIAL LABOR MARKETS: THE ROLES OF COMPETING VERSUS COMPLEMENTARY GROWTH
Rural communities compete with each other for firms, but their residents often commute large distances to work. Consequently, rural communities can benefit from economic growth occurring as much as 50 miles away. Data on county population growth shows that counties benefit from growth one or two counties away.Labor and Human Capital,
Deformable subreflector computed by geometric optics
Using a Cassegrainian geometry, the 64-meter antenna with its distorted paraboloidal reflecting surface is forced to produce a uniform phase wavefront by a pathlength-compensating subreflector. First, the computed distortion vectors at the joints or nodes of the main reflector structure supporting the surface panels are best fitted to a paraboloid. Second, the resulting residual distortion errors are used to determine a compensating subreflector surface by ray tracing using geometric optics principles. Third, the totally corrected subreflector surface is defined by the normal directions and distances to the surface of the original symmetric hyperboloid for the purpose of evaluation. Finally, contour maps of distortions of the paraboloid reflector and the compensating subreflector are presented. A field-measured check of the subreflector in focused position as computed by the described methodology is also presented for the antenna position at horizon look with the geometry at 45 degrees elevation
Midazolam and thiopentone co-induction: looking for improvement in quality of anaesthesia
Objective: To evaluate improvement in quality of anaesthesia induction using thiopentone and midazolam for co-induction of anaesthesia. An additional end point was taken as loss of response to a tetanic stimulation (50 Hz) delivered for 5 seconds after the loss of verbal contact and eyelash reflex.Methods: Ninety ASA I and II patients, within the age range of 20-60 years were studied. Patients were randomly divided into three equal groups; A, B and group C.Results: Onset of induction and loss of response to a tetanic stimulation was achieved earlier in group B as compared to the other study groups (p \u3c 0.05).CONCLUSION: Co-induction with midazolam 0.02 mg x kg(-1) followed by thiopentone 3 mg x kg(-1) was superior to other two groups. Induction of anaesthesia in this group was found to be smoother and faster, provided better hemodynamic stability, better airway maintenance and with lesser incidence of untoward effects
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