Delirium in the hospitalized elderly: Clinical indicators found in medical records

Delirium, which can be reversible and preventable, is one of the most significant complications affecting the hospitalized elderly today. The purpose of this descriptive retrospective chart review was to determine if medical records contain sufficient evidence to identify elderly patients who were at risk for developing delirium within 72 hours of hospital admission, and if accepted, evidence-based criteria were used to document the acute confusion. The chart\u27s of 100 patients, at least 65 years of age, admitted to a rural hospital were reviewed retrospectively. The review indicated that there was sufficient evidence, based solely on the descriptors and clinical information, available in the medical record to make a diagnosis of delirium. The chart review revealed that sixteen of the subjects met full clinical criteria to receive a medical diagnosis of delirium, however only one patient was diagnosed by a physician as having delirium

Design, Development, and Modeling of a Compact, Field-Grade Civil Infrastructure Crack Detector Device

Currently the nation's aging bridge infrastructure is approaching and in some cases exceeding its initial design life averaging more than forty years. Under these conditions steel bridges are susceptible to fatigue cracks at stress ranges below their material yield strength. In order to evaluate the remaining service life of these structures under their current operating conditions, it is important to accurately locate and identify active cracks within the material. Early detection of cracks and defects within a structure can provide inspectors and bridge maintenance personnel with viable information that can be used in the design and selection of an appropriate retrofit or repair technique that can be used to extend the service life of the bridge structure. Bridge inspections are typically conducted every two years primarily using visual inspection techniques. The active crack sensing tool designed and analyzed in this study is based on the robust and high sensing capabilities of piezoceramic materials. This dissertation presents the analytical, computational, and experimental results of a novel approach to identifying and characterizing cracks in steel bridge structural components using a piezoceramic sensor. Using the newly designed Piezoelectric Active Crack Tip Sensor (PACTS) tool, it was possible to detect an active crack with an opening displacement of 0.056 mm [0.0022 in] could be sensed under dynamic loading conditions. By using a crack opening linear trend (COLT) analysis, the crack tip position could be located within 3 mm [1/8 in] without the use of correction or modification factors. The results of the research provide a foundation in establishing an inspection tool capable of identifying damage detection within an in-service structure. The identification of an active crack and the ability to locate the crack tip of a material provides bridge inspectors and maintenance personnel with valuable information related to the current bridge condition that could be used for maintenance, repair, or replacement of bridges structures in an effort to ensure the safe passage of people and goods across the nation

Ion energy measurements on MAST using a midplane RFEA

Ion energy measurements have been made in the scrape off layer of the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) using a midplane retarding field energy analyser (RFEA) in H-mode plasmas during the inter-edge localised mode (ELM) period and during type I and type III ELMs. During the inter-ELM period at distances of 3 to 8 cm from the last closed flux surface (LCFS), ion temperatures of 20 to 70 eV have been measured giving an ion to electron temperature ratio of 2 to 7 with a mean of 4. During type III ELMs, an ion temperature of 50 eV has been measured 3 to 6 cm from the LCFS which decreases to 30 eV at distances 11 to 16 cm from the LCFS. During type I ELMs, an ion temperature of 40 eV has been measured at a distance of 10 to 15 cm from the LCFS.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Observations and modeling of the early acceleration phase of erupting filaments involved in coronal mass ejections

We examine the early phases of two near-limb filament destabilization involved in coronal mass ejections on 16 June and 27 July 2005, using high-resolution, high-cadence observations made with the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), complemented by coronagraphic observations by Mauna Loa and the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The filaments' heights above the solar limb in their rapid-acceleration phases are best characterized by a height dependence h(t) ~ t^m with m near, or slightly above, 3 for both events. Such profiles are incompatible with published results for breakout, MHD-instability, and catastrophe models. We show numerical simulations of the torus instability that approximate this height evolution in case a substantial initial velocity perturbation is applied to the developing instability. We argue that the sensitivity of magnetic instabilities to initial and boundary conditions requires higher fidelity modeling of all proposed mechanisms if observations of rise profiles are to be used to differentiate between them. The observations show no significant delays between the motions of the filament and of overlying loops: the filaments seem to move as part of the overall coronal field until several minutes after the onset of the rapid-acceleration phase.Comment: ApJ (2007, in press

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Poly[[tetra­kis­(μ2-pyrazine N,N′-dioxide-κ2 O:O′)erbium(III)] tris­(perchlorate)]

The title three-dimensional coordination network, {[Er(C4H4N2O2)4](ClO4)3}n, is isostructural to that of other lanthanides. The Er+3 cation lies on a fourfold roto-inversion axis. It is coordinated in a distorted square-anti­prismatic fashion by eight O atoms from bridging pyrazine N,N′-dioxide ligands. There are two unique pyrazine N,N′-dioxide ligands. One ring is located around an inversion center, and there is a a twofold rotation axis at the center of the other ring. There are also two unique perchlorate anions. One is centered on a twofold rotation axis and the other on a fourfold roto-inversion axis. The perchlorate anions are located in channels that run perpendicular to (001) and (110) and inter­act with the coordination network through C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds