Communication system features dual mode range acquisition plus time delay measurement

Communication system combines range acquisition system and time measurement system for tracking high velocity aircraft and spacecraft. The range acquisition system uses a pseudonoise code to determine range and the time measurement system reduces uncontrolled phase variations in the demodulated signal

Whole blood lactate kinetics in patients undergoing quantitative resuscitation for septic shock

Introduction We sought to compare the association of whole blood lactate kinetics with survival in patients with septic shock undergoing early quantitative resuscitation. Methods Preplanned analysis of a multicenter emergency department (ED)-based randomized control trial of early sepsis resuscitation targeting three physiological variables: central venous pressure, mean arterial pressure, and either central venous oxygen saturation or lactate clearance. Inclusion criteria: suspected infection, two or more systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria, and either SBP 4 mmol/l. All patients had a lactate measured initially and subsequently at two hours. Normalization of lactate was defined as a lactate decline to 2.0 mmol/l was seen in 187/272 (69%), and 68/187 (36%) patients normalized their lactate. Overall mortality was 19.7%. AUCs for initial lactate, relative lactate clearance, and absolute lactate clearance were 0.70, 0.69, and 0.58, respectively. Lactate normalization best predicted survival (OR = 6.1, 95% CI = 2.2 to 21), followed by lactate clearance of 50% (OR = 4.3, 95% CI = 1.8 to 10.3), initial lactate of <2 mmol/l (OR = 3.4, 95% CI = 1.5 to 7.8), and initial lactate <4 mmol/l (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.3 to 4.3), with lactate clearance of 10% not reaching significance (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 0.96 to 5.6). Conclusions In ED sepsis patients undergoing early quantitative resuscitation, normalization of serum lactate during resuscitation was more strongly associated with survival than any absolute value or absolute/ relative change in lactate. Further studies should address whether strategies targeting lactate normalization leads to improved outcomes

Inflammation and changes in cytokine levels in neurological feline infectious peritonitis.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a progressive, fatal, predominantly Arthus-type immune-mediated disease that is triggered when cats are infected with a mutant enteric coronavirus. The disease presents variably with multiple organ failure, seizures, generalized effusion, or shock. Neurological FIP is clinically and pathologically more homogeneous than systemic 'wet' or 'dry' FIP; thus, comparison of cytokine profiles from cats with neurological FIP, wet FIP, and non-FIP neurological disease may provide insight into some baseline characteristics relating to the immunopathogenesis of neurological FIP. This study characterizes inflammation and changes in cytokines in the brain tissue of FIP-affected cats. Cellular infiltrates in cats with FIP included lymphocytes, plasma cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and eosinophils. IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-12, IL-18, TNF-alpha, macrophage inhibitory protein (MIP)-1 alpha, and RANTES showed no upregulation in the brains of control cats, moderate upregulation in neurological FIP cats, and very high upregulation in generalized FIP cats. Transcription of IFN-gamma appeared upregulated in cats with systemic FIP and slightly downregulated in neurological FIP. In most cytokines tested, variance was extremely high in generalized FIP and much less in neurological FIP. Principal components analysis was performed in order to find the least number of 'components' that would summarize the cytokine profiles in cats with neurological FIP. A large component of the variance (91.7%) was accounted for by levels of IL-6, MIP-1 alpha, and RANTES. These findings provide new insight into the immunopathogenesis of FIP and suggest targets for immune therapy of this disease

Stress appraisal, coping, and work engagement among police recruits: an exploratory study.

This study investigated the influence of stress appraisal and coping on work engagement levels (Absorption, Vigour, and Dedication) of police recruits. Participants were 387 men, ages 20 to 33 yr. (M = 24.1, SD = 2.4), in their last month of academy training before becoming police officers. Partially in support of predictions, work engagement was associated with Stressor control perceived, but not Stress intensity experienced over a self-selected stressor. Although the three dimensions of work engagement were explained by Stressor control and coping, Absorption was the dimension better explained by these variables. Police recruits reporting higher Absorption, Vigour, and Dedication reported using more Active coping and less Behavioural disengagement. Results showed that stress appraisal and coping are important variables influencing work engagement among police recruits. Findings suggested that future applied interventions fostering work engagement among police recruits should reinforce perceptions of control over a stressor as well as Active coping strategies

The Category of Node-and-Choice Forms, with Subcategories for Choice-Sequence Forms and Choice-Set Forms

The literature specifies extensive-form games in many styles, and eventually I hope to formally translate games across those styles. Toward that end, this paper defines $\mathbf{NCF}$, the category of node-and-choice forms. The category's objects are extensive forms in essentially any style, and the category's isomorphisms are made to accord with the literature's small handful of ad hoc style equivalences. Further, this paper develops two full subcategories: $\mathbf{CsqF}$ for forms whose nodes are choice-sequences, and $\mathbf{CsetF}$ for forms whose nodes are choice-sets. I show that $\mathbf{NCF}$ is "isomorphically enclosed" in $\mathbf{CsqF}$ in the sense that each $\mathbf{NCF}$ form is isomorphic to a $\mathbf{CsqF}$ form. Similarly, I show that $\mathbf{CsqF_{\tilde a}}$ is isomorphically enclosed in $\mathbf{CsetF}$ in the sense that each $\mathbf{CsqF}$ form with no-absentmindedness is isomorphic to a $\mathbf{CsetF}$ form. The converses are found to be almost immediate, and the resulting equivalences unify and simplify two ad hoc style equivalences in Kline and Luckraz 2016 and Streufert 2019. Aside from the larger agenda, this paper already makes three practical contributions. Style equivalences are made easier to derive by [1] a natural concept of isomorphic invariance and [2] the composability of isomorphic enclosures. In addition, [3] some new consequences of equivalence are systematically deduced.Comment: 43 pages, 9 figure

Denying humanness to victims: How gang members justify violent behavior

The high prevalence of violent offending amongst gang-involved youth has been established in the literature. Yet the underlying psychological mechanisms that enable youth to engage in such acts of violence remain unclear. 189 young people were recruited from areas in London, UK, known for their gang activity. We found that gang members, in comparison to non-gang youth, described the groups they belong to as having recognized leaders, specific rules and codes, initiation rituals, and special clothing. Gang members were also more likely than non-gang youth to engage in violent behavior and endorse moral disengagement strategies (i.e., moral justification, euphemistic language, advantageous comparison, displacement of responsibility, attribution of blame, and dehumanization). Finally, we found that dehumanizing victims partially mediated the relationship between gang membership and violent behavior. These findings highlight the effects of groups at the individual level and an underlying psychological mechanism that explains, in part, how gang members engage in violence

Dose-response effects of exercise training on the subjective sleep quality of postmenopausal women: exploratory analyses of a randomised controlled trial

Objective: To investigate whether a dose-response relationship existed between exercise and subjective sleep quality in postmenopausal women. This objective represents a post hoc assessment that was not previously considered. Design: Parallel-group randomised controlled trial. Setting: Clinical exercise physiology laboratory in Dallas, Texas. Participants: 437 sedentary or overweight/obese postmenopausal women. Intervention: Participants were randomised to one of four treatments, each of 6 months of duration: a non-exercise control treatment (n=92) or one of three dosages of moderate-intensity exercise (50% of VO2peak), designed to meet 50% (n=151), 100% (n=99) or 150% (n=95) of the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Panel physical activity recommendations. Exercise dosages were structured to elicit energy expenditures of 4, 8 or 12 kilocalories per kilogram of body weight per week (KKW), respectively. Analyses were intent to treat. Primary outcome measures: Continuous scores and odds of having significant sleep disturbance, as assessed by the Sleep Problems Index from the 6-item Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale. Outcome assessors were blinded to participate radomisation assignment. Results: Change in the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Problems Index score at 6 months significantly differed by treatment group (control: -2.09 (95% CI -4.58 to 0.40), 4 KKW: -3.93 (-5.87 to -1.99), 8 KKW: -4.06 (-6.45 to -1.67), 12 KKW: -6.22 (-8.68 to -3.77); p=0.04), with a significant dose-response trend observed (p=0.02). Exercise training participants had lower odds of having significant sleep disturbance at postintervention compared with control (4 KKW: OR 0.37 (95% CI 0.19 to 0.73), 8 KKW: 0.36 (0.17 to 0.77), 12 KKW: 0.34 (0.16 to 0.72)). The magnitude of weight loss did not differ between treatment conditions. Improvements in sleep quality were not related to changes in body weight, resting parasympathetic control or cardiorespiratory fitness. Conclusion: Exercise training induced significant improvement in subjective sleep quality in postmenopausal women, with even a low dose of exercise resulting in greatly reduced odds of having significant sleep disturbance

The Impact of Online Social Networks on Decision Support Systems

Previous research on this matter had already determined that many concepts are encompassed by both online social networking and decision support systems research. Due to the large number of concepts and using clustering techniques, we were able to determine four concept clusters, namely: the technical infrastructure, online communities, network analysis and knowledge management. Then, we intended to gain further knowledge on how those concepts influenced DSS related research and the contribution of each cluster to the support of the phases of decision-making process. We also wanted to perceive the interconnections among the concept clusters themselves, for which we used structural equation modeling techniques. The obtained results evidence that not only online social networks are being used as a technical infrastructure to support the three decision making phases and to support knowledge management and online communities, but also that the other clusters only regard the intelligence phase of the decision process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Differential Interferometric Measurement of Instability at Two Points in a Hypervelocity Boundary Layer

The focused laser differential interferometer (FLDI) was used to investigate disturbances in a hypervelocity boundary layer on a sharp five degree half-angle cone. The T5 hypervelocity free-piston driven reflected-shock tunnel was used as the test facility; in such a facility the study of thermo-chemical/fluid-dynamic energy exchange is emphasized. Two sensitive FLDI probe volumes were aligned along a generator of the cone that recorded time-traces of density fluctuation at sufficient time resolution, spatial resolution, and signal to noise ratio, so that the boundary layer instability could be resolved. This arrangement of the FLDI allows for the interpretation of disturbances at two points and the correlation between them. The acoustic instability is detected with narrow-band peaks in the spectral response at a number of frequencies (500 kHz to 1.29 MHz). The data indicate that the instability driving the boundary layer to turbulence is acoustic in nature. Preliminary analysis indicates that there is not a significant difference between N2 and air acoustic boundary layer disturbance amplification factors for the representative cases presented. Computation of acoustic damping by thermo-chemical relaxation processes is presented for the same representative cases, and indicates that there is a negligible amount of absorption for both air and N_2 at the observed disturbance frequencies