Translationally invariant cumulants in energy cascade models of turbulence

In the context of random multiplicative energy cascade processes, we derive analytical expressions for translationally invariant one- and two-point cumulants in logarithmic field amplitudes. Such cumulants make it possible to distinguish between hitherto equally successful cascade generator models and hence supplement lowest-order multifractal scaling exponents and multiplier distributions.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figs, elsart.cls include

Perspectives in quality: designing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist

The World Health Organization's Patient Safety Programme created an initiative to improve the safety of surgery around the world. In order to accomplish this goal the programme team developed a checklist with items that could and, if at all possible, should be practised in all settings where surgery takes place. There is little guidance in the literature regarding methods for creating a medical checklist. The airline industry, however, has more than 70 years of experience in developing and using checklists. The authors of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist drew lessons from the aviation experience to create a safety tool that supports essential clinical practice. In order to inform the methodology for development of future checklists in health care, we review how we applied lessons learned from the aviation experience in checklist development to the development of the Surgical Safety Checklist and also discuss the differences that exist between aviation and medicine that impact the use of checklists in health car

Sex Differences in Human Olfaction: A Meta-Analysis

Although the view that women's olfactory abilities outperform men's is taken for granted, some studies involving large samples suggested that male and female olfactory abilities are actually similar. To address this discrepancy, we conducted a meta-analysis of existing studies on olfaction, targeting possible sex differences. The analyzed sample comprised n = 8 848 (5 065 women and 3 783 men) for olfactory threshold (as measured with the Sniffin Sticks Test; SST), n = 8 067 (4 496 women and 3 571 men) for discrimination (SST), n = 13 670 (7 501 women and 6 169 men) for identification (SST), and a total sample of n = 7 154 (3 866 women and 3 288 men) for works using University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). We conducted separate meta-analyses for each aspect of olfaction: identification, discrimination and threshold. The results of our meta-analysis indicate that women generally outperform men in olfactory abilities. What is more, they do so in every aspect of olfaction analyzed in the current study. However, the effect sizes were weak and ranged between g = 0.08 and g = 0.30. We discuss our findings in the context of factors that potentially shape sex differences in olfaction. Nevertheless, although our findings seem to confirm the “common knowledge” on female olfactory superiority, it needs to be emphasized that the effect sizes we observed were notably small

Electronic Transport in Strained Materials

In this thesis the conductivity of strained materials has been investigated using density functional theory and a semiclassical transport theory based on the Boltzmann equation. In transition metals trends are reproduced without adjustable parameters. The introduction of one temperature dependent cross section allowed the reproduction of resistivity trends between 10 and 1000K. The effect of strain on transition metals in bcc and fcc structure was studied deforming the unit cell along the tetragonal deformation path. The anisotropy of the conductivity varied on wide range of the c/a-ratio. The orbitals at the Fermi level determined the principal behavior. Pairs of elements with permutated number of electrons and holes in the 4d band showed similar behavior. The concept of the tetragonal deformation was also applied on semiconductors. The deformation of Vanadium in X/V superlattices (X=Cr,~Fe,~Mo) due to Hydrogen loading depends on the properties of X. It was found that counteracting effects due to the presence of Hydrogen influence the conductivity. It is shown that a small magnetic moment of the V host reduces the hydrogen solubility. Depending on the magnitude of the tetragonal distortion of V, the hydrogen dissolution becomes favored for larger moments. Finally, extra charge filling of the bandstructure of Cr and Mo decreases the Fermi velocity and increases the density of states at the Fermi energy

Standardised metrics for global surgical surveillance

Public health surveillance relies on standardised metrics to evaluate disease burden and health system performance. Such metrics have not been developed for surgical services despite increasing volume, substantial cost, and high rates of death and disability associated with surgery. The Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative of WHO's Patient Safety Programme has developed standardised public health metrics for surgical care that are applicable worldwide. We assembled an international panel of experts to develop and defi ne metrics for measuring the magnitude and eff ect of surgical care in a population, while taking into account economic feasibility and practicability. This panel recommended six measures for assessing surgical services at a national level: number of operating rooms, number of operations, number of accredited surgeons, number of accredited anaesthesia professionals, day-of-surgery death ratio, and postoperative in-hospital death ratio. We assessed the feasibility of gathering such statistics at eight diverse hospitals in eight countries and incorporated them into the WHO Guidelines for Safe Surgery, in which methods for data collection, analysis, and reporting are outlined