Some inconsistencies in judging problems

AbstractSuppose that I individuals are ordered on the basis of the sums of ranks assigned independently by J judges, and that there is a unique winner. If the winner is deleted and the ranks assigned to the remaining individuals are adjusted, then an ordering of the reduced set is obtained. This ordering is said to be consistent with the original ordering if the relative positions of all remaining individuals are unchanged.An examination is made of conditions under which an individual, who was beaten by the winner and at least one other person in the original ranking, emerges as the winner in the reduced ranking. Such an inconsistency is called an interchange

Part of the D - dimensional Spiked harmonic oscillator spectra

The pseudoperturbative shifted - l expansion technique PSLET [5,20] is generalized for states with arbitrary number of nodal zeros. Interdimensional degeneracies, emerging from the isomorphism between angular momentum and dimensionality of the central force Schrodinger equation, are used to construct part of the D - dimensional spiked harmonic oscillator bound - states. PSLET results are found to compare excellenly with those from direct numerical integration and generalized variational methods [1,2].Comment: Latex file, 20 pages, to appear in J. Phys. A: Math. & Ge

Timing of Colonization of Caries-Producing Bacteria: An Approach Based on Studying Monozygotic Twin Pairs

Findings are presented from a prospective cohort study of timing of primary tooth emergence and timing of oral colonization of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) in Australian twins. The paper focuses on differences in colonization timing in genetically identical monozygotic (MZ) twins. Timing of tooth emergence was based on parental report. Colonization timing of S. mutans were established by plating samples of plaque and saliva on selective media at 3 monthly intervals and assessing colony morphology. In 25% of individuals colonization occurred prior to emergence of the first tooth. A significant proportion of MZ pairs (21%) was discordant for colonization occurring before or after first tooth emergence, suggesting a role of environmental or epigenetic factors in timing of tooth emergence, colonization by S. mutans, or both. These findings and further application of the MZ co-twin model should assist in development of strategies to prevent or delay infection with S. mutans in children

Bound - states for truncated Coulomb potentials

The pseudoperturbative shifted - $l$ expansion technique PSLET is generalized for states with arbitrary number of nodal zeros. Bound- states energy eigenvalues for two truncated coulombic potentials are calculated using PSLET. In contrast with shifted large-N expansion technique, PSLET results compare excellently with those from direct numerical integration.Comment: TEX file, 22 pages. To appear in J. Phys. A: Math. & Ge

COPD care delivery pathways in five European Union countries : mapping and health care professionals' perceptions

Background: COPD is among the leading causes of chronic morbidity and mortality in the European Union with an estimated annual economic burden of €25.1 billion. Various care pathways for COPD exist across Europe leading to different responses to similar problems. Determining these differences and the similarities may improve health and the functioning of health services. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare COPD patients’ care pathway in five European Union countries including England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Greece, and Germany and to explore health care professionals’ (HCPs) perceptions about the current pathways. Methods: HCPs were interviewed in two stages using a qualitative, semistructured email interview and a face-to-face semistructured interview. Results: Lack of communication among different health care providers managing COPD and comorbidities was a common feature of the studied care pathways. General practitioners/family doctors are responsible for liaising between different teams/services, except in Greece where this is done through pulmonologists. Ireland and the UK are the only countries with services for patients at home to shorten unnecessary hospital stay. HCPs emphasized lack of communication, limited resources, and poor patient engagement as issues in the current pathways. Furthermore, no specified role exists for pharmacists and informal carers. Conclusion: Service and professional integration between care settings using a unified system targeting COPD and comorbidities is a priority. Better communication between health care providers, establishing a clear role for informal carers, and enhancing patients’ engagement could optimize current care pathways resulting in a better integrated system

Maternal nutritional status, food intake and pregnancy weight gain in Nepal

This is the author's accepted version (version 2) of an article published by SAGE in Journal of Health Management, March 2016. The published version is available at http://pss.sagepub.com/lookup/doi/10.1177/0972063415625537Poor maternal nutrition during pregnancy may predispose to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), immunological and metabolic adaptations which manifest as low birth weight and increase the risk of adult non-communicable disease. This study examined the relationships between maternal nutritional status, food intake and pregnancy weight gain (PWG) which may account for risk of low birth weight (LBW) in Nepal

Asymptotic solvability of an imaginary cubic oscillator with spikes

For the PT symmetric potential of Dorey, Dunning and Tateo we show that in the large angular momentum (i.e., strongly spiked) limit the low-lying eigenstates of this popular non-Hermitian problem coincide with the shifted Hermitian harmonic oscillators calculated at the zero angular momentum. This type of an approximate Hermitization is valid in all the domain where the spectrum of energies remains real. It proves very efficient numerically. The construction is asymmetric with respect to the sign of the subdominant square-root spike, and exhibits a discontinuity at the point where the PT symmetric regularization vanishes.Comment: 20 pages and 2 figure

Postgraduate pharmacist development- an evaluation of Jordanian pharmacist experiences to inform and shape an evidence-based professional development policy

Building capacity for developing skills as leadership, teamwork, and continuous academic support has become essential for fulfilling a successful pharmacy career. This study aims to assess Jordanian pharmacists’ views on professional development, namely: the continuous education infrastructure, strategies and programs for personal development, leadership skills, incentive schemes, drug information resources and digital services. As well as exploring options for better academic support delivered to pharmacists. To capture participant’s views, an online validated and reliable survey was developed. Non-probability sampling design was used. Participants were qualified pharmacists working at Royal Medical Services (RMS) and Community Pharmacists (CP). Comparison and descriptive statistics were used to report the results. A total of 271 pharmacists participated, 144 from RMS (8% more than the needed sample) and 127 CP (7% more than the needed sample). There was a strong desire amongst both RMS and PC groups for continuous educational training particularly in the following areas, first: Advanced counselling and communication skills (means = 8.99±0.145, CI 95% = 3.70–4.28 and 9.37±0.096, CI 95% = 4.18–4.56). Second: Personal development skills (mean = 8.92±0.142, CI 95% = 3.64–4.20 and 9.02±0.145, CI 95% = 3.73–4.30). Third, Pharmaceutical health promotion (mean = 8.05±0.180, CI 95% = 2.70–3.41 and 8.57±0.159, CI 95% = 3.26–3.89). Only 19.4% and 18.1% of the RMS and CPs respectively reported the presence of a written policy for personal development and leadership in their workplace. There were few incentives for pharmacists to participate in research. Few pharmacists used the available drug information and toxicology centers. The professional and continuous personal development of pharmacists support an evolving healthcare system. This study emphasizes the need for a tailored and documented postgraduate educational strategy, personal development, and leadership skills training in Jordan. Implementing a well-defined scheme of incentives should be encouraged to engage pharmacists in continuous professional development programs and pharmaceutical research. Such strategy and training should enhance both professional and personal performance

Temperatures of Exploding Nuclei

Breakup temperatures in central collisions of 197Au + 197Au at bombarding energies E/A = 50 to 200 MeV were determined with two methods. Isotope temperatures, deduced from double ratios of hydrogen, helium, and lithium isotopic yields, increase monotonically with bombarding energy from 5 MeV to 12 MeV, in qualitative agreement with a scenario of chemical freeze-out after adiabatic expansion. Excited-state temperatures, derived from yield ratios of states in 4He, 5Li, 6Li, and 8Be, are about 5 MeV, independent of the projectile energy, and seem to reflect the internal temperature of fragments at their final separation from the system. PACS numbers: 25.70.Mn, 25.70.Pq, 25.75.-qComment: 10 pages, RevTeX with 4 included figures; Also available from http://www-kp3.gsi.de/www/kp3/aladin_publications.htm