The challenges in caring for morbidly obese patients in Intensive Care: A focused ethnographic study

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: The challenges in caring for morbidly obese patients in Intensive Care: A focused ethnographic study journaltitle: Australian Critical Care articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2017.02.070 content_type: article copyright: © 2017 Australian College of Critical Care Nurses Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Deep observations of the Super-CLASS super-cluster at 325 MHz with the GMRT: the low-frequency source catalogue

We present the results of 325 MHz GMRT observations of a super-cluster field, known to contain five Abell clusters at redshift $z \sim 0.2$. We achieve a nominal sensitivity of $34\,\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$ toward the phase centre. We compile a catalogue of 3257 sources with flux densities in the range $183\,\mu\rm{Jy}\,-\,1.5\,\rm{Jy}$ within the entire $\sim 6.5$ square degree field of view. Subsequently, we use available survey data at other frequencies to derive the spectral index distribution for a sub-sample of these sources, recovering two distinct populations -- a dominant population which exhibit spectral index trends typical of steep-spectrum synchrotron emission, and a smaller population of sources with typically flat or rising spectra. We identify a number of sources with ultra-steep spectra or rising spectra for further analysis, finding two candidate high-redshift radio galaxies and three gigahertz-peaked-spectrum radio sources. Finally, we derive the Euclidean-normalised differential source counts using the catalogue compiled in this work, for sources with flux densities in excess of $223 \, \mu$Jy. Our differential source counts are consistent with both previous observations at this frequency and models of the low-frequency source population. These represent the deepest source counts yet derived at 325 MHz. Our source counts exhibit the well-known flattening at mJy flux densities, consistent with an emerging population of star-forming galaxies; we also find marginal evidence of a downturn at flux densities below $308 \, \mu$Jy, a feature so far only seen at 1.4 GHz.Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures, 10 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Effects of decreased dietary roughage concentration on energy metabolism and nutrient balance in finishing beef cattle

The optimal roughage concentration required in feedlot diets changes continuously for many reasons such as source, availability, price, and interaction with other ingredients in the diet. Wet distillers grains and solubles (WDGS) are common in finishing diets and they contain relatively high amounts of fiber compared with other grains they replace. Therefore, concentration of roughage could be altered when WDGS are included in feedlot diets. There has been very little data published regarding the effects of roughage concentration on energy metabolism and nutrient balance in beef steers. Therefore, the effects of roughage concentration in dryrolled corn (DRC)–based diets containing 25% WDGS were evaluated in 8 steers (BW = 362 ± 3.71 kg) using a replicated Latin square. Data were analyzed with the fixed effects of dietary treatment and period and random effects of square and steer within square were included in the model. Diets consisted of 25% WDGS and the balance being DRC and coarsely ground alfalfa hay (AH) replacing corn at 2% (AH-2), 6% (AH-6), 10% (AH-10), and 14% (AH-14) of dietary dry matter. As a proportion of GE intake, fecal energy loss increased linearly (P = 0.02), and DE decreased linearly (P = 0.02) as dietary level of AH increased. Methane energy loss, as a proportion of GE intake, increased linearly (P \u3c 0.01) and ME decreased linearly (P \u3c 0.01) as dietary concentration of AH increased. Heat production tended (P = 0.10) to decrease reaching a minimum of 10% AH and increased from 10 to 14% AH inclusion. Moreover, as a proportion of GE intake, retained energy (RE) decreased (P \u3c 0.01) as AH level increased in the diet. Reasons for the decrease in RE are 1) the increase in fecal energy loss that is associated with decreased ruminal digestibility of NDF when AH replaced DRC and the shift in ruminal VFA produced, 2) the decreased energy available for animal retention when NDF increased linearly as AH increased in the diet, and 3) the methane and heat energy associated with digestion of the fibrous portion of the AH. Neutral detergent fiber and OM excretion also increased linearly (P \u3c 0.01) with increasing AH in the diet. The increased NDF and OM excretion were likely caused by the difference in digestibility of AH and DRC

Effects of decreased dietary roughage concentration on energy metabolism and nutrient balance in finishing beef cattle

The optimal roughage concentration required in feedlot diets changes continuously for many reasons such as source, availability, price, and interaction with other ingredients in the diet. Wet distillers grains and solubles (WDGS) are common in finishing diets and they contain relatively high amounts of fiber compared with other grains they replace. Therefore, concentration of roughage could be altered when WDGS are included in feedlot diets. There has been very little data published regarding the effects of roughage concentration on energy metabolism and nutrient balance in beef steers. Therefore, the effects of roughage concentration in dryrolled corn (DRC)–based diets containing 25% WDGS were evaluated in 8 steers (BW = 362 ± 3.71 kg) using a replicated Latin square. Data were analyzed with the fixed effects of dietary treatment and period and random effects of square and steer within square were included in the model. Diets consisted of 25% WDGS and the balance being DRC and coarsely ground alfalfa hay (AH) replacing corn at 2% (AH-2), 6% (AH-6), 10% (AH-10), and 14% (AH-14) of dietary dry matter. As a proportion of GE intake, fecal energy loss increased linearly (P = 0.02), and DE decreased linearly (P = 0.02) as dietary level of AH increased. Methane energy loss, as a proportion of GE intake, increased linearly (P \u3c 0.01) and ME decreased linearly (P \u3c 0.01) as dietary concentration of AH increased. Heat production tended (P = 0.10) to decrease reaching a minimum of 10% AH and increased from 10 to 14% AH inclusion. Moreover, as a proportion of GE intake, retained energy (RE) decreased (P \u3c 0.01) as AH level increased in the diet. Reasons for the decrease in RE are 1) the increase in fecal energy loss that is associated with decreased ruminal digestibility of NDF when AH replaced DRC and the shift in ruminal VFA produced, 2) the decreased energy available for animal retention when NDF increased linearly as AH increased in the diet, and 3) the methane and heat energy associated with digestion of the fibrous portion of the AH. Neutral detergent fiber and OM excretion also increased linearly (P \u3c 0.01) with increasing AH in the diet. The increased NDF and OM excretion were likely caused by the difference in digestibility of AH and DRC

Dust masses of disks around 8 Brown Dwarfs and Very Low-Mass Stars in Upper Sco OB1 and Ophiuchus

We present the results of ALMA band 7 observations of dust and CO gas in the disks around 7 objects with spectral types ranging between M5.5 and M7.5 in Upper Scorpius OB1, and one M3 star in Ophiuchus. We detect unresolved continuum emission in all but one source, and the $^{12}$CO J=3-2 line in two sources. We constrain the dust and gas content of these systems using a grid of models calculated with the radiative transfer code MCFOST, and find disk dust masses between 0.1 and 1 M$_\oplus$, suggesting that the stellar mass / disk mass correlation can be extrapolated for brown dwarfs with masses as low as 0.05 M$_\odot$. The one disk in Upper Sco in which we detect CO emission, 2MASS J15555600, is also the disk with warmest inner disk as traced by its H - [4.5] photometric color. Using our radiative transfer grid, we extend the correlation between stellar luminosity and mass-averaged disk dust temperature originally derived for stellar mass objects to the brown dwarf regime to $\langle T_{dust} \rangle \approx 22 (L_{*} /L_{\odot})^{0.16} K$, applicable to spectral types of M5 and later. This is slightly shallower than the relation for earlier spectral type objects and yields warmer low-mass disks. The two prescriptions cross at 0.27 L$_\odot$, corresponding to masses between 0.1 and 0.2 M$_\odot$ depending on age.Comment: 9 pages,6 figures, accepted to ApJ on 26/01/201

Certification of Bounds of Non-linear Functions: the Templates Method

The aim of this work is to certify lower bounds for real-valued multivariate functions, defined by semialgebraic or transcendental expressions. The certificate must be, eventually, formally provable in a proof system such as Coq. The application range for such a tool is widespread; for instance Hales' proof of Kepler's conjecture yields thousands of inequalities. We introduce an approximation algorithm, which combines ideas of the max-plus basis method (in optimal control) and of the linear templates method developed by Manna et al. (in static analysis). This algorithm consists in bounding some of the constituents of the function by suprema of quadratic forms with a well chosen curvature. This leads to semialgebraic optimization problems, solved by sum-of-squares relaxations. Templates limit the blow up of these relaxations at the price of coarsening the approximation. We illustrate the efficiency of our framework with various examples from the literature and discuss the interfacing with Coq.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Analytic Detection Thresholds for Measurements of Linearly Polarized Intensity Using Rotation Measure Synthesis

A fully analytic statistical formalism does not yet exist to describe radio-wavelength measurements of linearly polarized intensity that are produced using rotation measure synthesis. In this work we extend the analytic formalism for standard linear polarization, namely that describing measurements of the quadrature sum of Stokes Q and U intensities, to the rotation measure synthesis environment. We derive the probability density function and expectation value for Faraday-space polarization measurements for both the case where true underlying polarized emission is present within unresolved Faraday components, and for the limiting case where no such emission is present. We then derive relationships to quantify the statistical significance of linear polarization measurements in terms of standard Gaussian statistics. The formalism developed in this work will be useful for setting signal-to-noise ratio detection thresholds for measurements of linear polarization, for the analysis of polarized sources potentially exhibiting multiple Faraday components, and for the development of polarization debiasing schemes.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Investigation into the effect of fingermark detection chemicals on the analysis and comparison of pressure-sensitive tapes.

Pressure sensitive tapes such as duct tape are a common trace type sent for forensic analysis. The limited variation of tape backings and adhesives can provide valuable linkage evidence between a scene, a victim or a person of interest. Fingermarks are also often found on tapes and prioritised over tape analyses. This project aimed to investigate the effects of fingermark enhancement chemicals, namely Wet Powder™, cyanoacrylate and cyanoacrylate stained with rhodamine 6G, on various tapes and their comparison with untreated tapes. The changes in physical and optical features were observed using a Video Spectral Comparator (VSC) and microscopy. Chemical changes were analysed by Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Most physical and optical properties were not heavily affected by the treatments. An increase in fluorescence was observed with specimens stained with rhodamine 6G as might be expected. Significant chemical changes were observed in the FTIR spectra produced from cyanoacrylate fuming. Polyethylene backings and rubber adhesives were heavily affected while polypropylene backings were moderately affected. Cellulose backings, polyester and polyacrylate adhesives were not significantly affected. Wet Powder™ treatment proved useful for enhancing fingermarks on most adhesives while leaving behind little chemical residue that might interfere in a forensic comparison