HF and VHF communications circuits - Earth orbiting spacecraft and ground stations

HF and VHF communications circuits for Earth orbiting spacecraft and ground station

Prison Boot Camps: Which Style Works Best?

In 1983 Georgia and Oklahoma began implementing a new type of alternative sanction called prison boot camps. These alternative sanctions were an attempt to alleviate problems such a prison overcrowding, cost of long-term imprisonment, and high recidivism rates among offenders. As boot camps proliferated across the U.S., two distinct types of programs evolved, the military and the therapeutic styles. Given the extensive use of these types of boot camps across the country, it is important to determine which style is most effective at achieving their intended goals. For this research, I use data collected by MacKenzie and Souryal (1994) to determine which type of boot camp program is better able to reduce offender recidivism. The results indicate that there was not a significant difference in recidivism across programs, but both programs exhibit lower recidivism rates than those found nationally for prisons. This findings is used to explore implications for future boot camp design and its influence on public safety

Sensor networks and data management in healthcare: emerging technologies and new challenges

Smart pervasive sensor networks are becoming an important part of our daily lives. Low-power, high-availability and high-throughput 5G mobile networks provide the necessary communication means for highly pervasive sensor networks, introducing a technological disruption to health monitoring. The meaningful use of large concurrent sensor networks in healthcare requires multi-level health knowledge integration with sensor data streams. In this paper, we highlight some software engineering and data-processing issues that can be addressed by metamorphic testing. The proposed solution combines data streaming with filtering and cross-calibration, use of medical knowledge for system operation and data interpretation, and IoT-based calibration using certified linked diagnostic devices. © 2019 IEEE

Changes over time in mental well-being, fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity in a community-based lifestyle intervention: a before and after study

Objectives: There is a theoretical basis for believing that healthy lifestyle interventions can improve mental well-being and evidence to show that mental well-being is protective of future health. This study contributes to the evidence base by examining changes in mental well-being associated with the One Body One Life (OBOL) healthy lifestyle programme in a community setting in the West Midlands. Study design: Quantitative, before and after the evaluation. Methods: We conducted a before and after study of the lifestyle intervention ‘OBOL’, a multi component intervention that includes exercise and healthy eating education. Mental wellbeing was measured with the Warwick- Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. Physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption were self-reported. Measures were collected before and after the 12-week intervention and three months post completion. Nonparametric tests were used to assess differences between groups, and linear mixed models were used to assess change over time. Results: Four hundred and eighty-one (81% of attendees) adult participants completed a valid Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale before starting OBOL; of whom, 63.8%completed the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale immediately post intervention and 25.2% at three months. Mental well-being levels increased significantly (P < 0.001)over the course of the intervention and were sustained at the three-month follow-up(baseline median Warwick- Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale score ¼ 48 [interquartile range 41e55], completion ¼ 53 [interquartile range 46e57], 3-month follow-up ¼ 52[interquartile range 46e56]). Change in mental well-being was clinically significant after accounting for age and gender. Changes in both fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity appeared to explain some but not all of the variation in mental well-being. Conclusion: We found significant improvements in mental well-being among participants directly after the intervention which were sustained at the three-month follow-up. These findings contribute to a growing body of knowledge on the contribution of lifestyle interventions to promoting and sustaining mental well-being

Parkinson’s disease dyskinesias possibly relate to greater dopamine transporter losses in the putamen over time

The pathophysiology of levodopa-induced dyskinesias in Parkinson’s disease is incompletely understood. This study was designed to investigate in Parkinson’s patients, whether time-related changes in striatal dopamine transporter availability are associated to the appearance of dyskinesias. 15 Parkinson’s patients had dopamine transporter-specific SPECT imaging with 123I-FP-CIT twice: at baseline (when they were drug naïve) and at follow-up (6.31±2.29 years from baseline), and were followed up clinically every six months. At the end of the study, patients were divided in two groups according to whether they had developed dyskinesias or not. Semi-quantification of 123I-FP-CIT data was performed using the occipital cortex as the reference region. Specific binding ratios were calculated for the putamen and the caudate. During the clinical follow-up, all Parkinson’s patients were treated pharmaceutically. 8 patients developed dyskinesias, while 7 remained nondyskinetic. At baseline, the two groups had similar 123I-FP-CIT specific binding ratio values for the putamen and the caudate (p>0.05). Also, between-group differences in age, disease duration, and Hoehn & Yahr scores were not statistically significant. Over-time, the putaminal 123I-FP-CIT specific binding ratio values in the dyskinetic group decreased significantly (p<0.01). The nondyskinetic patients had smaller reductions (p<0.05) during the same period of time. At follow-up, the dyskinetic patients had significantly higher Hoehn & Yahr scores (p<0.01) and were taking higher levodopa equivalent doses (p<0.001), as compared to the nondyskinetic patients. The development of Parkinson’s dyskinesias is related to a faster progression rate, as reflected by marked putaminal dopamine transporter decreases

Improving Communicative Competence in Global Aphasia

TB

Measuring Communication Competence in Global Aphasia

TB