Evaluation of advanced fast reactor blanket designs

Originally presented as the first author's thesis, (Sc. D.)--in the M.I.T. Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1977Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-325)ERDA research and development E(11-1)-2250 UC-79P LMFBR-Physic

Conceptual design of an HTGR system for a total energy application.

Thesis. 1975. Nucl.E.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Nuclear Engineering.Bibliography: leaves 153-157.Nucl.E

Maximizing The Impact Of Improvement Efforts On Customer Satisfaction

When a customer satisfaction survey consists of a large number of attributes (questionnaire items), determination of critical attributes that would make the biggest impact on customers’ overall satisfaction could be important, but very tedious and time-consuming process. Even though the critical attributes are identified, the improvement efforts toward these attributes are often misdirected and wasted because of the mismatch between the improvement efforts and the critical needs of the affected customer group. This paper introduces a method with which improvement efforts can be tailored to the needs of the customer group who could bring the most impactful influence on improving customer satisfaction. For the critical attribute considered, the percentage of customers who assigned a specific satisfaction rating is obtained, and the cumulative percentages of customers are examined and the target group of customers to whom the improvement efforts would be tailored is identified. The piecewise linear approximation method is also discussed to estimate the non-linear relationship of the attribute, which also may help determine the target customer group. The overall shape of the piecewise function and the slopes at the line segments may be used in determining which attributes are satisfaction-maintaining or satisfaction-enhancing, and where and how the improvement efforts should be focused in order to maximize the effectiveness of the improvement efforts

Pharmacokinetics of Amitriptyline Demethylation;A Crossover Study with Single Doses of Amitriptyline and Nortriptyline

A single dose crossover pharmacokinetic study of amitriptyline and nortriptyline was done to find out the extent of first-pass metabolism to nortriptyline after amitripyline administration, and the contribution of nortriptyline during amitriptyline therapy. Six healthy male volunteers took part in this study and were given single doses (50 mg) of amitriptyline and nortriptyline at more than three-week intervals. Plasma concentrations of the drugs were measured up to 48 hours. Total area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUe) of amitriptyline (744.6±258.4 ng/ml·hl was smaller than that of nortriptyline (l497.3±589.8 ng/ml'h), and the mean terminal half-life of amitriptyline (21.8±3.9 hr) was shorter than that of nortriptyline (36.8±5.9 h). The total area under the plasma concentration-time curve of nortriptyline produced by amitriptyline administration was 498.1 ±274.5 ng/ml·h, and the fraction produced by the first-pass of amitriptyline was 33.7 ± 10.5%. From this data, it can be estimated that the average nortriptyline concentration could be about 40% of the total tricyclic antidepressants present in the plasma of patients taking multiple amitriptyline therapy at steady state. About 34% of nortriptyline is produced by first- pass effect during gastrointestinal absorption of amitriptyline to systemic circulation resulting from N-demethylation of amitriptyline in the liver. Then, the rest of the nortriptyline is formed continuously at a rate proportional to the rate of amitriptyline elimination

How Team-Level and Individual-Level Conflict Influences Team Commitment: A Multilevel Investigation

We investigate how two different types of conflict (task conflict and relationship conflict) at two different levels (individual-level and team-level) influence individual team commitment. The analysis was conducted using data we collected from 193 employees in 31 branch offices of a Korean commercial bank. The relationships at multiple levels were tested using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The results showed that individual-level relationship conflict was negatively related to team commitment while individual-level task conflict was not. In addition, both team-level task and relationship conflict were negatively associated with team commitment. Finally, only team-level relationship conflict significantly moderated the relationship between individual-level relationship conflict and team commitment. We further derive theoretical implications of these findings

GAIT ASYMMETRY IN CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME

It has been reported that approximately 80% of children with Down syndrome (OS) exhibit gait problems (Matteo, 2002), characterized by flat-footed contact with no heel-strike, excessive abduction of the leg in the swing phase, and abnormal knee and hip f1exions throughout the gait cycle (Parker et aI., 1986). Due to muscle hypotonia, muscle weakness, !igamentous laXity, and other orthopedic abnormalities, different gait characteristics exist. The purpose of this study was to investigate the gait (walking and running) asymmetry in children with OS